Down the Rabbit Hole
by AnGelGothIca
Summary: It's been four years since Randall was banished to the human world...but what happens when he befriends a young teenager?  In a world that doesn't understand, can their friendship survive what's to come?
1. Chapter 1

All MI characters property of Disney/Pixar, my characters belong to me, quote from Shinedown's song "Sound of Madness" and belongs to them.

Down the Rabbit Hole

Chapter I

_I created the Sound of Madness, wrote the book on pain. Somehow I'm still here to explain that the darkest hour never comes in the night. You can sleep with a gun but when you gonna wake up and fight for yourself. _

_-Shinedown_

"There it is." A young boy told his fellow friend as they stared at the old abandoned two story house upon the street corner.

"Okay, so are we ready?"

"Yeah, I guess so." The other kid answered.

The two gave each other a nod as they approached the house and slightly jogged up the sidewalk to the front porch. They opened the door as they then stepped inside. The boys walked slowly down a long hallway as they soon came to a flight of stairs leading to the other bedrooms. As the first boy attempted to make a step, his friend grabbed him by the arm, "Wait, do you hear that?"

They both took a moment to listen as they then heard it, it sounded like some kind of slow melody being played on a piano and it sounded like it was coming from down the hallway past the stairs. They continued to follow the sound until they entered some kind of music room but just as they entered than the playing stopped. Looking around, there was no body in the room.

"Let's just go!" the second boy whimpered.

"No, we're not leaving until we spot the ghost, remember?"

"Oh, so that's why you're here? Looks like I didn't prepare for company like I should have."

Then the boys turned to the sound of the voice when suddenly out of nowhere, a large creature, lizard like in appearance suddenly formed before them. The boys were silent until the creature laughed at them as he then jumped off of the top of the piano. The two screamed as they bolted out of the room and for the door, not looking back as they ran down the street. Both were unaware of the fact that this ghost had stopped following them once they had shot themselves out of the house. He watched them run as he then walked back towards the music room. Dipping the tip of his tail in a bucket of black paint, he made a marking on the wall that had joined a long group of others. "Oh Randall, you are good!" and with that said, he climbed on top of the piano and settled down for a nap until the next group of stupid kids would try to face the 'ghost'.

Randall Boggs was his full name but the humans only knew him as the ghost of the old mansion. It had been a couple of years or so since the day that he had been banished from his home. In the beginning, things didn't start out so smoothly when he was thrown through the closet of a swampland home where some hillbilly woman had mistaken him for a gator and practically beat the crap out of him with a shovel. When the mother and her son tossed Randall's body outside, presuming him to be dead, he decided to travel to another place until he could find himself a suitable home. Then that was how he came upon the small town known as West Port and the old house that he decided to call home. After discovering that his camouflaging ability fooled humans into mistaking him for a ghost, life in the human world became much easier. Here, he had no competition and really no worries; he learned how to get human food without having to scrounge through trash and dumpsters. Of course, life in the human world wasn't an entire picnic; there were other banished monsters that lived here in secret from the humans. While most preferred to be left alone and live in solitude, there were some that just goes to show that the word 'jerk' wasn't enough to truly describe them. Otherwise than that, life was pretty easy for the reptilious monster.

Life for one particular human, a young girl of the age of thirteen, was not so promising. She was dressed in basically a hoodie and baggy pants while she wore combat boots upon her feet. Her blonde hair had one small strand of red dyed hair that was always hanging down near the side of her nose in front of her face. The young girl's name was Lillian but the bullies at her school knew her by the informal name, "The Freak of the School." Lillian, unlike most girls her age, was interested in what would be considered part of the weird and unusual. The only thing that she seemed to like that most of her peers would consider normal was her strong love for music. She had taken piano lessons when she was very small and just kept at it as she got older. Sadly, no one seemed to understand her for growing up in this town wasn't easy for Lillian. She had no friends even though she tried making some but it wasn't that easy. The school bell rang and as usual, Lillian started the walk home. While she was walking, the school bus passed by her as some group of boys on the bus yelled out through the window at her, calling her the usual names that she was used to hearing. She chose to ignore them as she continued her walk. During part of her walk, she began to pass by the old two story house. Growing up, there were always people saying that it was haunted but she wasn't too sure. She stopped in front of the house as she then noticed what appeared to be maybe a dark shadow moving inside. Curiosity made her take that first step towards the porch but soon; reasoning took hold as she decided that it was best to forget it and continued walking home. She didn't realize that apparently a pair of dark green eyes watched her from inside, giving her his full attention as she passed. Randall noticed her right away for she was the same girl that at least from Monday to Friday would always pass by his place both on the way to and from school. For whatever reason that seemed to be even unknown to him, Randall seemed to find this girl to be more of interest than the other children whom he had seen around this town. After about maybe an hour's time, Lillian had finally made it home. She simply let herself inside as she soon found a note from her mother, simply letting her daughter know that she would be working late and probably wouldn't be home around three or so in the morning. You see, Lillian's mother was a nurse who worked at the local hospital. Her father, on the other hand, wasn't in the picture since the couple's divorce around the time that Lillian was about seven. "Huh, looks like it's just going to be me tonight then."

It was about ten thirty when Lillian had just finished reading a new novel that she had bought from the bookstore around last week but despite that something was bothering her. She was certain that when she passed by the old house that she saw someone inside or at least it seemed that way. The thirteen year old shook it off, telling herself that it might have been her mind playing tricks on her. Still, it was bothering her just the same but she took notice of the time. It was about ten thirty-five now, her mother wouldn't be home for a good couple of hours. Her curiosity took hold of her as she decided to pull on her combat boots and head for the old house. One feature that was part of Lillian's personality was that little habit she had of not letting go of her suspicions and soon acting upon them, something that was always certain to get her in trouble at home. She made it to the old house as she for a few minutes just stood there, staring at the old structure with its rotted shingles. It was hard to believe that at one point, someone had lived in this house and had called it home but that was a long time ago. She took a deep breath as she slowly made the way down the concrete entrance way and took her first step upon the porch which creaked underneath her weight. She froze before pulling up her other leg and placing it before the other which resulted in another creak. Then she slowly placed her hand upon the circular doorknob as she then twisted it and opened the door. "Hello? Is there somebody here?" She called out into the darkness. She walked inside as she closed the door behind herself. Taking a few careful steps, she slowly made her way down the hallway and towards the staircase. It looked like every door was closed but suddenly the door that was farther down the hallway opened slowly, almost as if someone was inviting her inside. She walked towards it as she then entered; the room was none other than a music room. She glanced at one of the many bookshelves; it was loaded with books about songs for piano. Next to it was an old fashioned record player with a pile of records next to it upon the floor. She looked around at the walls, there were what appeared to be black markings that looked like tallies of some kind but what really caught her attention was the huge black piano that sat in the middle. She walked towards it as she then played a few notes from the basic scale upon it. The piano, despite its age, had a pretty good tune nonetheless. She couldn't help herself as she sat herself down and started to play a piano solo from a movie she once saw about a dead bride. The piano sounded like that it was in pretty good shape, Lillian really liked it. In fact she would give anything to have a piano like this but sadly her mother wasn't into the idea so she had to settle for her keyboard instead. After she finished playing, a voice suddenly spoke, "You play beautifully." She froze, as she then looked around, she didn't see anybody.

"Who's there, who are you?"

"Oh, just the residence of this house."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"I mean that I'm the one who lives here." Lillian then looked at the piano when suddenly that dark shadow she saw earlier had formed but she couldn't really see it that well in the dark. Be that as it may, whatever it was wasn't human and personally, she didn't feel like sticking around to find out. She gave a small shriek as she ran out of the room and out of the house. Randall sighed to himself, he actually enjoyed her playing but now after that little display of fear, she probably wasn't coming back anytime soon.

The next day at school, Lillian seemed a little on edge also not to mention that she couldn't help but wonder as to what that shadow was. She thought about it for a bit, maybe that thing was the legendary ghost that some of the kids at her school swore that they had seen. But if it was a ghost then why did it look like it had a physical shape? Logically, ghosts had no physical body but then how could she explain the fact that it appeared out of nowhere on her. All of these questions were racking her brain; she just couldn't figure it out. Suddenly she felt a crumpled up piece of paper hit her in the back of the head as she gave a mean look towards some kid in her class who only laughed about it. She made up her mind; she was going back to the house after school to see about this ghost. At three thirty, the bell rang as Lillian checked her backpack to make sure that she had what she needed. She had thought about going to the house that morning but had then changed her mind when she walked passed it. Inside her pack were candles, incense, and a book about performing exorcisms. If this thing was a ghost, she wanted to see if there was anyway to help it move on to the other side.

Sure enough, she had made it to the house again, just like she always did on her way to and from school. She walked towards it, with a little more confidence than last night. She entered the house and headed towards the music room, sitting down upon the floor, she began to set up her things. "Hello, are you possibly here because if so could you give me a sign?"

She waited but nothing happened, "It's okay, I'm only here to help you find the place where you belong."

She waited a bit as she then heard the piano play the basic scale by itself, the ghost was in the room.

"Okay, can you speak to me, are you a poltergeist or just a humble spirit."

"Well, to tell you the truth, I'm not even dead."

Lillian nearly jumped when she heard him or at least it sounded like a he.

"What do you mean by that?"

"I'm basically no different than you; I eat, sleep, and occupy myself with little things to do here or there."

Lillian wasn't sure about what he was saying, "If you're not a ghost then what are you?"

"A monster."

Lillian looked around, the fact that this thing was talking to her but yet she couldn't see him was frustrating, "Okay then, prove it."

Then just like last night, the shadow formed before her but this time since there was light out, she could actually see it. She stared in astonishment as the creature appeared to her sitting upon the piano. She slowly walked up to him as she looked him over. He was large, no doubt about that but he was purple in color that seemed to change into blue near the end of his body. He had what appeared to be eight legs with three fronds upon his head. His body shape, eyes, and even legs looked like that of a lizard. She took into notice his sharp teeth but she couldn't understand how he could suddenly appear like that.

"How did you do that?" She asked him.

"Like this." And with that, Randall grabbed her sleeve of her hoodie, she watched as his hand suddenly changed black to match the color of it. When he let go, his hand changed back to normal.

"Whoa, you can change colors, camouflaging with anything just like a chameleon!" Randall smiled at her comment; she was pretty smart to figure it out that quickly.

"So that's how people think you are a ghost. What you can do gives the illusion of that."

"Well, you catch on pretty quick, don't you?" he remarked. Lillian felt kind of silly; she was planning to perform an exorcism on someone who wasn't even dead. Then something occurred to her, "Some of the kids at my school talk about how they've seen you but they're always scared off by you, how come you're not trying to attack me now?"

Randall rested his head on one of his arms as his tail flicked around, "I've seen you pass by my place almost everyday. Also, I liked your playing; it was pretty good and obviously much better than mine. I was hoping you would have played more yesterday but I accidentally scared you off." Lillian smiled, this thing whoever he was actually found her playing to be quite pleasant. "So do you have a name, mine is Lillian." "Randall Boggs but you can just call me Randall." He answered her.

For the next hour or so, Randall answered all of Lillian's questions, where he came from, why he was here, was he male or female just so she could make sure. Then he had questions for her, "Where did you learn to play like that?"

"Well, I've taken piano lessons when I was little and I just kept at it, I guess the fact that I love music is the only thing normal about me compared to my other hobbies."

The creature stared at her a little strange, "No offense but you seem pretty normal to me."

"Well, no one at school thinks so. Most of them just call me a freak because I'm into what they call weird stuff."

Randall shook his head, "Just because you have different likes from them doesn't make you a freak." Lillian couldn't help but smile, he was probably the first person, well individual actually, who didn't see her as a freak for once.

"You said that you came here because you were banished from this Monstropolis place, why were you banished." The lizard like monster stared down a bit; she could tell that it was uneasy for him to talk about it.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"No, no, it's okay", he told her as he slowly began, "I was banished because of what I was doing although my banishment wasn't official but it was banishment nonetheless. In my world, we use the screams from children as an energy source, kind of like how you guys use electricity. In order to collect the screams, monsters who are known as scarers must go scare children by going through a portal through their closet door."

"Oh, is that how come sometimes kids believe that they have monsters in the closet?" she asked.

"Yep, that's where that little fear comes from. It's considered a job where we live, anyhow, I wanted to get ahead in the company and so I built a machine known as the Scream extractor."

Lillian looked at him a little funny concerning the name, "Think of it like a huge vacuum that would suck the scream out of a child, I was caught by Sullivan and his buddy Wasoki for trying to use it on a little girl and my scheme fell apart if you will so they banished me for good. I was a pretty nasty guy before in my world so now I live here."

The girl tried to process this, "No offense but a machine like that sounds more likely to kill a kid than really extract anything."

Randall nodded to show her that he agreed, "You're probably right, since my banishment I've been thinking about it and the design, chances are it would have led to the death of many children if it was approved so maybe it's good that it wasn't. Of course, trying to get it approved by the board of directors is close to impossible since the monsters fear of children-."

"Whoa, wait a minute, are you trying to tell me that you big, scary monsters are afraid of little kids?"

"Well, I'm not anymore but others still may be. We have this strange fear of children being toxic and that touching them could lead to us dying."

Lillian started laughing, "I'm sorry but that's the biggest load of crap I have ever heard."

Randall smiled a bit, "Yeah I know which is another good thing about being banished, you discover out here that it's not true."

"Then what led to you guys believing this?" she asked him. The monster shrugged his shoulders to show that even he didn't know himself. Lillian looked over at a Great Grandfather clock in the room, it read that it was now six-thirty, "Is that clock right?"

"Yeah, most of the time. Why?"

"Because I better get home in case my mom gets off early today, if I'm not home at least before she is then she's gonna kill me."

Randall watched her with a somber expression, "Will you come back again?"

"Yeah, sure, if you want I could come back tomorrow after school?"

"Okay then, I'll be waiting." She smiled as she headed out the door. When she exited the house, she was unaware that another creature was watching her from the trees across the street. His sharp fangs bared as his canine like ears twitched a bit, he watched her for a minute but then turned his attention towards the house. He gave a low growl as he then turned tail and bolted into the woods.


	2. Chapter 2

All characters properly owned by Disney/Pixar, my characters belong to me, quote from Shinedown's "Sin with a grin."

Chapter 2

_Thank you for reminding me of why I'm sick inside. Thank you for the venom, did you think it would paralyse? These scars I scratch, I tear are there under my skin where you've always been. Thank you for reminding me to sin with a grin. _

_-Shinedown_

A boy, about twelve it looked like, ran for his life through the alley ways past the upper part of town. He was so scared, never had he been scared of anything during his entire life, he ran around a corner to see that he was boxed in by a metal fence but he didn't care, he would climb it to get away from that beast. He started to climb and almost reached the top with his hand as he heard a low growl, he turned to see the humongous blue wolf staring him down as he ran towards him, the boy screamed when the creature jumped and chomped down on his leg, pulling him down but the boy held on as best as he could still trying to get away. Then minutes later, his grip loosened as he then fell to the ground, his screams could be heard miles around as the creature then ripped his little body apart. The boy was dead after about ten minutes but the creature only stared down at the lifeless body, he didn't kill this kid for hunger, only for the thrill. He then realized that he was a bloody mess, "Huh, better get cleaned up", he told himself as he wore a black grin upon his face.

Randall decided that tonight would be as good a night as any to sneak into the town's mall, there was a game in the arcade that he was interested in beating. When he arrived, he noticed that the security door was open, probably because there were other banished monsters here already; he went inside to see that that the security in the place was shut off.

"Good, at least they remembered this time."

He made it towards the arcade as he noticed that a few younger monsters were already inside and playing a fighting game, Randall walked past them as he headed to his favorite game. The machine was decorated in a dark circus theme as a picture of a skull jester was on the front; the game read 'CarnEvil'.

Randall plugged it in, turning it back on which loaded the main menu for the game, he set it on free play and then started the game, "Okay Tokkentakker, I am ready for you this time."

He was determined to beat it no matter what it took, about an hour into his game, he was on the last level, The Big Top, when he noticed that the younger group of monsters motioned that they needed to bolt for it, "Yo man, we gotta go, he's here!"

They quickly snuck out as Randall continued to play and finally made it to the zeppelin. He was now fighting Umlaut, Tokkentakker's lackey when he smelled it, the scent of blood but it was human no doubt. He decided to ignore it as he beat the jester skull and was on the final boss. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blue wolf like creature walk past towards the center of the mall. Randall told himself to ignore him until he had beaten the game first. Then while he was firing away, he saw Tokkentakker fly back into the propeller and was chopped up into little pieces, "Yes, got ya!"

Randall had finally beat the game, he put the gun back as he watched the final cut scene but when he saw the character take the token and put it back into the jester's mouth, he couldn't believe it, "Oh come on! What the hell did you do that for?"

He sighed as he wrote his name in with the gun, even after he won; this game still had the last laugh. He noticed that it was eerily quiet, probably because of who was still in here. Randall followed the scent of the blood, it was a disgusting foul odor but he followed it anyway. He snuck down the escalator and then made it to the center of the mall, there was a large fountain that was always on and sure enough, the monster from earlier was there washing off the blood from his kill.

Randall gave him a crude look, "So who was it this time, Scourge?" The monster looked like a blue werewolf as he turned to see the reptilious monster.

"Just some kid, I'd say about twelve or so, why does it matter to you, lizard boy?"

Randall gave him an ugly glare, "It's not like he did anything to you, in fact, if you keep this up it won't be long before you get caught! Then it may lead to the rest of us getting captured too! Didn't you ever think about that?"

"What I do is my business, besides not everyone is a saint like you so get the fuck off my case!"

"Look, I'm no saint, all I'm saying is that what you're doing is stupid that's all!"

Scourge had enough as he made a swipe for the monster, Randall ducked and then camouflaged. The wolf like monster laughed to himself as he closed his eyes, took a small sniff, and then ran towards the wall, slamming into Randall so hard that he reappeared in an instant, gripping him by his neck, "You should know by now lizard boy that this camouflaging trick don't work on me. Maybe younger monsters that are too dumb to know but not me. I don't need to see you to find you, all I need to do is sniff you out and you're done for."

Randall struggled to get out of Scourge's grip but it was impossible, the monster easily out powered Randall although he should have known better by now that it was best to leave Scourge alone.

"Oh by the way, the little blonde girl looks like quite a cute kid, wonder how her screams would sound if she was in pain?"

Just this comment set Randall off as he used his tail like a whip to hit Scourge across the face and took a defensive stand when he recovered, "I don't know what you're talking about?"

"You know, you don't lie that well and I'm talking about the girl who left your little shack today."

Randall gave Scourge a scowling expression, "Fine whatever, you're just wasting my time." Scourge took his leave as Randall slithered over to the fountain, he watched as the blood in the water was being filtered out. He wanted to throw up, to even try and imagine about what Scourge did to this poor child was too much to bear. Randall just hung his head as he decided to head back home, he lived to see another day, surprisingly.

Lillian went through her usual routine for the day and after school, just like she had promised, she came over to the old house to see Randall again. Carefully, entering, she heard the piano playing slowly, it sounded like a slower version of the song she had played before.

When she entered the music room, she saw the piano playing by itself, "You trying to play by ear?"

The music stopped as Randall appeared in front of her, "Yeah, something like that."

She couldn't help but notice that Randall's chest had gotten darker in color, almost like he was punched or something, "You okay?"

"Hmm", Randall just looked at her and saw the concern, "Yeah, I'm fine, just had a rough night, that's all."

Lillian set her backpack down as she decided to look around the room while Randall once again tried to play the same song from before. She saw that almost every book more or less was related to music, she pulled one out to see that inside were sheets of music of some song she probably had never heard of. Randall kept pressing keys but then he hit a wrong note as he sighed, "Where did you hear the song you were playing anyway?"

"It's from a movie called "Corpse Bride", one of Tim Burton's films."

"Huh, he's a director right?"

"Yeah but how would you know about him if you live here all the time?" she asked.

"Hey, I don't stay here twenty four- seven you know. I do go out every once in a while."

Lillian laughed a bit, "Good point." She sat down at the piano again as she started to play the same song from before, "Randall, do you even like living here, wouldn't you rather be back in your world?"

"Yeah, sometimes I do think that way and other times, I actually prefer being here. Besides, banished monsters have ways of living our lives pretty well despite what we have to deal with."

"You mean there are others besides you also here?"

The lizard nodded to show her his response, "Sure, I really don't socialize with them but yeah, there are other monsters besides me."

Lillian stopped playing a bit; Randall watched and waited for her to start again, "Do you have any friends in the school you go to?"

"Not really, like I told you yesterday, most people see me as a freak, remember?"

"Then I'll be your friend", he told her, "You can come over here any time you want. Also I was wondering if you could teach me how to play?"

"Sure", she told him as she motioned for him to sit next to her. The lizard slithered next to her as she began with the basic scale and finger placement upon the keys. For the next few months, Lillian would come over almost everyday, even around the weekends and sometimes Randall would come to her house late at night. She showed him all of the things she was into from the creepy to the strange. In exchange, Randall would show her the town as how he traveled through it; they would go to the arcade, the mall, and even other stores after closing and just hang out. It seemed like their friendship was perfect but within time that would change.

Downtown, there was a fight going on between two monsters and it had just ended. The loser was a strange creature with many tentacles while the victor was a female monster who looked like a human with fur covering her chest, waist, feet, and hands. She had claws and a large bushy tail as she became so excited over her win, "I win, you lose, I win, you lose, I win-!"

"Candi, shut up!"

She turned to see a fourteen year old boy with black hair that covered part of his face, a basic t shirt, and some jeans step out of the shadows as he watched the other monster limp away from the scene.

"Oh Brendan, don't be a sourpuss." She told him in a child like voice.

"I get that we won but doesn't mean you have to make a scene of it!"

She giggled, "O-K, I'll try to behave next time!"

The boy sighed, she probably wouldn't remember anyway. Candi, like Randall, was also a banished monster whom had been banished much longer than him. She was sent to the human world for, well, let's just say she messed around with the older brother of one of her scaring assignments. Now in banishment, she messed around with anyone, human or monster alike. She skipped around as she still was applauding her victory, "Hey Brendan, guess what?"

He hated this game but he might as well answer her, "What?"

"The other day, I saw this lizard monster with a girl in the mall."

"It's not like you monsters don't date or go out!"

"No, I mean a human girl, probably about your age or maybe a year younger."

This perked his interests, "Who's the monster?"

"I don't know but he's cute." She told him with a sly smile on her face.

"Huh, another challenge waiting to happen." Candi and Brendan would actually go out looking for fights on purpose, while Candi saw it as fun, Brendan saw it as claiming territory.

"Then we'll try to find them, they'll be our next opponents."

"Oh Brendan, after I beat him, can I play with him?"

"I already told you that I don't care about what you do in your spare time, just don't tell me about it!"

"O-K! Hey, maybe that girl could become your girlfriend."

"Candi, you pose as my girlfriend, remember?"

"Oh yeah."

That was one of her abilities, she was able to change her appearance to be anyone or thing she wanted. In fact, Candi was probably one of the few banished monsters able to go out in public during the day because of it.

"In the mean time, find out from other monsters about where he lives and who this lizard monster is."

"O-K Brendan!" she told him as she followed him, skipping so merrily.

During that same night, Randall quietly headed over to Lillian's house, she was going to show him something cool on her computer which he had to admit, perked his interests. He climbed up the side of the house until he made it to her bedroom window in which he tapped the glass with his tail. When she heard the small noise, she knew exactly who it was. Opening the window, she watched as Randall reappeared once inside and closed it with his tail, "Okay, so what did you want to show me?"

Lillian loaded up a news website, "This", Randall read the title as he then became a slightly lighter shade of purple.

"According to this, they said another murder occurred when the body of a twelve year old boy was found about a few months ago, following the same pattern similar to other murders of other children here." She read.

Randall knew that this meant that the humans were truly paying attention to Scourge's little routine, "Uh, well, that's interesting but why are you showing me this again?"

"Well, I got to thinking. You told me that there were other banished monsters besides you right?"

"Right?"

"So, isn't it possible that something like this could be the work of a monster?"

Randall couldn't believe how perceptive she was but, "How do you know that it's not the work of a human?"

"You know, I thought of that at first but they said that some of the evidence found was blue animal hair, now if it was human than the evidence would point to a human, make sense?"

"Well, uh, yeah, sure it does but I don't see why this interests you so much?" Lillian couldn't help but sense nervousness in the lizard's voice, he knew someone who might have been linked with these murders. The monster, desperate to change the subject, decided to make a suggestion, "Hey, how about we go out and pull a few pranks tonight, that sound good?" "Yeah, sure", Lillian grabbed her hoodie as she pulled it over her shirt, "Let's go."

A few water balloons later, Randall had hoped that Lillian forgot all about her little discovery but it was hard to tell. They were up on the roof of a small apartment building when Lillian accidentally knocked over the bag of water balloons with her foot, "Crap."

"I'll get them." Randall offered as he slithered down the side of the building and went invisible at the same time.

Lillian waited for about a few minutes but suddenly she heard the sound of feet climbing, she found it a little strange that he was back already, "Randall, did you find them?" Unfortunately, a large blue and clawed hand grabbed onto the roof's edge, it wasn't Randall at all. The claw soon revealed that a large blue wolf like monster was attached to it. He growled at her, baring his fangs as she slowly back away from him, Lillian wanted to scream but somehow sound just wasn't coming out.

She backed herself up against a small little greenhouse on the roof as the wolf only showed a dark grin, "Well, well, so you're lizard boy's little friend. It's nice to finally meet you but unfortunately, I'm going to have to cut this meeting short. You see, I don't like humans that much."

He lifted his claws, getting ready to take a swipe at her, "Oh well, I guess I'll end this then!"

Lillian was so scared as she shut her eyes, ready for the claws to pierce her skin until she heard a loud noise as Randall suddenly appeared and sent the monster flying to the ground just by hitting him with his tail. "You don't mind if I cut in, do you?" Randall answered.

The monster was furious, "Damn son of a bitch!"

"Takes one to know one!" Randall retorted back.

The monster ran at him as Randall did the same, wrapping his body around him, "Lillian run! Now!"

He didn't have to tell her twice, she bolted as she ran to go down the fire escape that was connected to the building. Once she got down, she ran for her life, not sure of where she was running to just as long as it was away from that wolf monster that just tried to kill her. Randall tried his best to hold Scourge down; even biting down into the other monster's neck but Scourge's anger was fueling his strength. He grabbed Randall like how you would grab a snake, squeezing his neck tighter, forcing Randall to let go as Scourge then rammed the two of them into the green house, cracking some of the glass. Then Scourge dug his claws into Randall's side, now causing the monster's body to go limp from pain, this gave him enough time to pull him off completely.

He held Randall's face up to his own, "Boy, you're really stupid, you know that? I mean, come on, you are killing yourself and for what, a stupid kid that apparently is your little friend!"

Randall growled at Scourge as the wolf laughed in his face, "Oh man, does that piss you off! Damn, that's just sad!"

"There's nothing wrong with humans but you wouldn't know about that, you see them as your prey-!"

"Because that's what they are", Scourge yelled back, "Easy prey!"

"They are no different than us."

Scourge was having a field day, "Have you taken a look in the mirror lately, they are way different than us, the little bastards!" Randall then wrapped his tail around Scourge's leg, pulling it out from under him, at least giving him a chance to escape his grip for once. Scourge simply stood himself up as he decided to go after the girl, Randall tried to stand himself up but it wasn't easy considering the pain he was in, "Scourge, you even think of going after her and I'll kill you!"

This stopped the monster in his tracks, as he turned to look at the sorry reptile, "Kill me huh? Well, we can't have that!"

Randall then realized his mistake; he shouldn't have said anything, for all he knew Scourge could have been done for the night. Scourge grabbed him by the neck in one claw as he grabbed his body in another, "Hey lizard boy, guess what? Let's try a riddle, what's red, purple, and covered in glass?"

"Scourge, ha ha, you're funny, how about we just let what happened go, you okay with that?"

"Oh come on, you're not even going to give my riddle a try; okay sure, I'll tell ya. It's you once I send you flying into that damn green house!" Sure enough Scourge tossed Randall into the green house, shattering one side of the little building completely. When he saw that Randall didn't move, he took it as a reassuring thing. "Your little human friend is lucky tonight, I'll give her a good chase some other night, but maybe next time, you should stay out of it lizard boy!" and with that said, Scourge took his leave.

About two hours or so had passed but Randall finally came to once he was able to lift his head a bit, he looked towards his side, the gash wasn't as bad as he imagined but still, it was painful. He lifted himself up but standing entirely upright wasn't going to happen. Then he remembered, Lillian was out in town somewhere, still hiding since Scourge's attack, he needed to find her to make sure that Scourge really did give up like he said. He carefully shook the glass off of himself as he slowly crawled out, he tried camouflaging but it caused his side to hurt even more so that was also out of the question as well. He needed to be careful but first he needed to think about where she would go, at best she would have ran back to his place but then there was one other place she would go, "The park", he told himself, she was probably there.

Lillian was there, she was hiding at the top of the largest slide of the play equipment, crying as she could only imagine about what could have happened to Randall, not that she had no faith in his abilities but still, was it possible that this wolf monster could have really hurt him? Or even worse, what if Randall was dead, then she started cursing herself for leaving, she should have stayed! She could have helped him somehow but how she couldn't really think of. Still, if he was seriously hurt than it would be her fault, the monster was after her, not Randall. She cried even harder now, she hadn't cried this much since her parents had their divorce, back then she felt it was her fault too that her father had left. She couldn't believe this, she had to believe that he was okay but it was really hard. "Hey, what's wrong?" She picked up her head to see that Randall had found her and he was more or less okay, she ran to him as she cried even more.

"Hey come on Lillian, I'm okay, it's alright."

She then saw the gash, he was hurt and sure enough it was caused by that wolf monster that tried to kill her, "Randall, you're hurt!"

"Huh", he then remembered his little injury, "Oh yeah, it's fine, it's nothing really."

"We should probably get you back to your place before he comes back or something!" she cried.

"Don't worry about him", Randall told her, "He's done for the night; he won't be coming after us."

Randall tried to brush the one red strand out of her face but it just fell back into place, "It's okay", he told her as he nuzzled her face with his head. Lillian started laughing, she felt a little better but that left one thing on her mind, "Randall, that's the monster who's been doing all the killings, isn't it?"

He sighed, "Yeah, I'm afraid so but right now, I need to get back home, this little injury isn't helping my camouflaging ability at all and the night won't last much longer." The two carefully climbed down but were surprised to see a white dog sitting on the ground, apparently watching them. The two stared at the animal for a minute but when all it did was wag its tail, they looked at each other, shrugged and continued on their way.

The white dog then ran for the other end of the park, it stopped in front of Brendan as he leaned against a telephone pole, "Well, what happened?"

The dog changed into Candi as she stood up, "I don't know what happened to him but that little girl was so scared, she was crying and then he showed up and-."

"Wait", Brendan interrupted her, "Did you say that she was crying over him?"

"Yeah, she was, it was so sweet!" Candi told him.

"Huh, more like disgusting, she sees him almost like her pet!"

"Well, we don't know that, maybe their really good friends or something."

"That's not a good enough reason to start bawling over him, still, what happened to him?"

"I don't know, I think he got into a fight or something but he was hurt, poor lizard!"

"Candi, shut up and focus! Apparently, they are a little too close for comfort but then again, it would make a fight against him even more interesting. We would have total control over it while all she would do is just have a heart attack, actually this might be a better fight than I could imagine."

He looked at his cell phone, it was at least three or so in the morning, "We'll call it a night, keep tabs on this oversized gecko, alright?"

"O-K Brendan!" Candi told him in a playful way. She followed him as once again, she skipped merrily and hummed some little song that she knew, whatever song it was, Brendan could care less about as after awhile, he pulled out an mp3 and shoved the headphones in his ears, just so he could drown out her humming.


	3. Chapter 3

Randall and other MI related characters are property of Disney/Pixar. My characters belong to me, quote from Shinedown's "The Crow and the Butterfly" and are property of them.

Chapter 3

_Just like the crow chasing the butterfly, dandelions lost in the summer sky. When you and I were getting high as outer space, I never thought you'd slip away, I guess I was just a little too late. _

_-Shinedown_

Lillian and Randall, after some careful sneaking, finally got him home. He slowly climbed atop the piano as Lillian decided to run home and get their first aid kit, when she got back, Randall had fallen asleep. He stirred when she opened the box and pulled out some antiseptic spray, "This might sting, okay?"

She sprayed him once as he growled from the pain, then she wrapped him with bandaging, hopefully he would heal okay.

Randall gave the clock a look, "It's late, you better get going before your mom realizes that you're not home."

"Okay fine, I'm gonna leave this here in case you need it, I'll pick it up tomorrow afternoon, it'll be Saturday so I can get some sleep until then, okay?"

The monster nodded to show that he understood; Lillian gave him a quick hug around his neck as she went ahead and headed home. Around two, her mother finally came into her room, "Lillian, get up, you've been in bed all day!"

She yawned as she looked at her mother and then fell back to sleep, "Now young lady!"

Lillian didn't want to get up, not after the craziness that she had to deal with last night but she did anyway. She took herself a shower and was going through the basic routine, she washed her face, brushed her teeth, reapplied hair dye to her one strand that hung in the front, the usual. She picked out a black tee with a green fairy on the front but then when she went to grab her hoodie off of her computer desk, it wasn't there! "Mom, where's my hoodie?"

"I went ahead and washed it!" she heard her mother yell from downstairs.

"What did you do that for?"

"Honey, that thing hadn't been washed in weeks, besides, it's a nice day today, and you don't really need to wear it." Lillian went down to the washroom to see that it probably had been drying since this morning; it was a little damp but better than nothing. She put it on as she made her leave, "I'm going over to a friend's house, be back in a bit!"

Lillian made it to the house, when she entered the music room, she couldn't see Randall but she did see the bandaging on him, "I see you."

He reappeared as he caught a strange scent, "Smells like flowers, you wearing perfume now?"

"Get real, my mom decided to sneak into my room this morning and stole my hoodie in order to wash it."

"Huh, well it smells nice although you probably didn't have to wear it today", she shot him a blank look, "Or we'll just drop the subject."

"Yes, let's do that, so how are you feeling?"

"Better, sore still, but better then last night."

"Well, you can blend in again so that's a good sign", she pulled off the bandaging to see that scabbing had already appeared, "Wow, you heal pretty fast!"

"Well, monsters have a higher immune system than humans so we heal faster than you guys." Randall explained. Lillian sat down at the piano, "So?"

"So what?"

"You are going to tell me about who the wolf was last night, right?"

Randall scratched one of his fronds as he got comfortable, "Yeah sure, why not. His name is Scourge, he's a pretty nasty guy but I'm sure that you pretty much got that."

"So, how long has he been banished for?"

Randall shrugged, "I don't know but he's been here a lot longer than me, that's for sure."

"Do you know why he was banished?" she asked.

"Well, from what I've heard, he was banished for killing one of his scaring assignments, his scaring assistant reported him."

"So he's killing kids because of what?"

"Not sure, some say that he holds anger against humans and does it for that reason but I personally think that it's his sick, twisted way of getting his kicks."

"It seems like he knows you, last night when he was going to attack me, he called you 'lizard boy'. Did you piss him off or what?"

"Well, not intentionally. When I was first banished and made it here, being a new monster meant trouble for me. In fact, my first night here I got cornered by three other monsters but then Scourge showed up and scared them off. He introduced himself as being the head honcho around here and advised me to hang around with him, said I would be safer that way. We almost became buddies."

"Almost", she asked, "What changed that?"

Randall didn't like talking about this, "Well, one of the nights that we were hanging out, he wanted to get me involved with his little nightly duties. We followed a girl, maybe a preteen or somewhere around there, he told me that we were going to have some fun. I asked him if he meant scaring but he told me that it was something like that. We followed until finally he gave chase and then he corned her in an alley, then I saw him run past me as he attacked her."

Lillian looked at him, she could see that this was uncomfortable for him to talk about, "I'm not going to let you in on details but think of it like something out of a horror film but real, no movie magic involved."

Lillian couldn't believe it, "She was killed that badly?"

"Yeah, I couldn't watch but what bothered me the most was her screams. See, as a past scarer, children screams shouldn't phase me but this wasn't just fear, it was that and pain, immense pain! I couldn't watch so I ran from there and found a bush to throw up in, it was just horrible!"

Lillian stroked his fronds to comfort him, "He followed me, asked me what the problem was, I told him that what he did wasn't scaring, it was killing but all that sick dog told me was that it was scaring on another level! He acted like it was no big deal, he told me to just tough it out but I decided that he wasn't worth hanging around; I told him that I wanted nothing to do with him or his sick hobbies. He got pissed off and as you can tell, we're not on friendly terms with each other."

"I think that was a good thing you did, he's probably a big jerk anyways."

"A huge jerk actually but yeah, you're right about that."

Lillian had a thought, "Doesn't he realize how dangerous that would be for all of you guys, his kills are found by police, if he's not too careful than the police will find him or worse, they'll discover the rest of you guys too!"

Randall just laughed, "Please, he doesn't care, all he cares about is killing more kids and that's about it."

"You told me about how you were banished and that you had almost killed one monster twice, I don't know why but considering that, you think that what he does wouldn't bother you?" she asked.

"You would think that but you have to remember Lillian, the guy I tried killing was an adult monster, someone who could and can defend himself against me but as far as killing kids goes, they really can't defend themselves. Scourge doesn't give them any chances, he shows no mercy, he gives them no fighting chance and to me, that's just wrong. Even if my machine was capable of killing, back then that never dawned on me, it never occurred to me of the damage that it could do. I don't have a problem with scaring kids, eventually kids find a way to cope with fear or overcome it but killing isn't the same as scaring, not in my mind anyway."

Lillian found that pretty reassuring, it seemed to her that Randall was making the best out of his situation, too bad the monsters that banished him couldn't see that. If they did then she knew that they would let him go home where he could live a normal life instead of hiding in the shadows all of the time.

"Still, he knows about me so now what?" Randall gave it some thought, "I'll just beat his sorry tail when I have to and we'll be fine." Lillian started laughing, Randall always knew how to make her feel better of course it was one of the reasons why he was her best friend.

Scourge, on the other hand, didn't really have any friends to speak of although he did live with a bunch of mutts. He lived in the old West Port Zoo where he controlled all that the eye could see. A large Doberman got up as he walked over to greet him, "Hey Butch."

Scourge gave the dog a friendly pat as he looked at the scar over its left eye, it was a scar caused when Butch had tried to attack Randall once. Needless to say, the dog couldn't see out of that eye for that reason and held a dark grudge against the lizard as well. Scourge sighed as the other dogs then started to stir and bark to greet his presence, he dragged a human body and dropped it as the dogs tried to go to it but Butch gave a loud bark, the rest of the dogs backed away from their master's kill. Butch was lead of the pack and as so, he ate first, when he pulled off an arm and walked over to Scourge, once he sat down, the other dogs took it as his permission for them and they immediately pounced upon the body. It was one of the few times where their master had brought any thing back for them; if not then normally the pack would have to go out hunting.

Scourge gave a low sigh as Butch tore at the limb, "That damn lizard."

This caught Butch's attention, he knew of whom his master spoke of, the same one who gave him his scar.

"Honestly Butch, he makes me sick, putting up quite a fight, and for what? Some bitchy little brat! Some snot nosed teenager who probably would just forget him the minute she screws with a boy! He has to feel a need to protect her? It's down right nauseating!"

While Butch didn't entirely understand that, he knew that humans were one thing that his master despised more than anything...that and any monsters who associated with humans. Scourge just sighed as he watched the pack mangle and tear apart the body, trying to ignore the fact that the night was a total waste.

The next week started like any other, Lillian would go through the school day as normal until the final bell rang, she was putting some books away in her locker but then her attention turned to one boy and one alone, Mark. Mark was the most popular boy in the seventh grade and considered the hottie for their grade as well. Lillian then couldn't help but notice that he was walking towards her, not just past her. She was starting to get nervous as he stopped in front of her, "Hey Lindsey."

She gave an internal sigh, he for whatever reason never got her name right and always called her by another, "It's Lillian", she corrected him.

"Whatever, could you do me a solid favor?"

Now she was getting excited, he had never asked her of anything before, "Yeah sure, what?" Maybe he wanted to walk with her or maybe he needed some help on an assignment, he was on the Jr high football team, whatever it was she would gladly do it.

"Could you drop this book at the library so that I can catch the bus with Heather?"

In that moment, all that hope was dead just like that, "Sure", she told him sadly.

"Cool, thanks." And like that he left her alone with the book that apparently he had no time to drop off himself. Lillian watched him as he caught up to Heather, the pretty red head who gave her a dirty smirk before leaving. Lillian couldn't believe what just happened, "Well, that's the story of my life."

After dropping off the book, Lillian headed straight home as she saw the note hanging on the fridge, once again mom was doing another late shift which was fine. It meant that she could go depress herself in her room. She dropped her backpack on the floor as she picked up a stuffed dog that had stitches and piercing all over it, she hugged him as she now entered her comfort zone. Randall waited until nightfall; he decided that he was going to head over to Lillian's place since she never came over after school which was unusual for her. After he scared off another group of stupid kids, he then slinked through the city but when he climbed to the top of a street lamp, he noticed that the moon was out tonight but that there was another shadow besides his on the ground. He looked behind himself to see that whatever it was, it was hiding.

"Huh", he continued on his way but decided to keep an eye out behind, sure enough, he caught it out of the corner of his eye. He halted as he turned around to see that some strange furry monster was then trying to hide in the shadows. He couldn't really see it that well but whoever it was, their eyes caught a little bit of the moonlight, causing them to shine a bright glow for a few seconds.

"I don't know who you are but I would like if it you didn't follow me!" he yelled at it. He continued on his way but then noticed that they were still at it, he then tried jumping from roof to roof, he went in all sorts of directions but still nothing. Whoever this monster was, it was fast and he just couldn't lose them. Then he had an idea, he turned another corner down a neighborhood street, the monster that followed also turned but froze when she saw that he was nowhere to be found. Candi had been the one following him, spying just like Brendan told her to but now she had lost him somehow. She didn't understand how but she couldn't find any trace of him anywhere. She gave up after a bit as she then got on all fours and morphed into the wolf form that she had taken before, running down the street back to Brendan's place. Randall then appeared against the fence as he watched her run, "That dog", he recognized her as the dog from the park but why was she following him for or at least he thought it was a she. The night didn't help much especially since her body shape was very human like for a monster. "Whatever", he wouldn't worry about it as he continued on his way to Lillian's house.

Once he got there, he made sure that her mom's van was gone which sure enough, it was. He climbed up to her window and tapped the glass with his tail. Lillian heard the noise; it had startled her a bit since she had fallen asleep. She got up and decided to open the window as Randall slithered inside. He noticed the sad look on her face, "Something happen?"

"You could say that."

Now he knew something was wrong, "What?"

"Mark talked to me today but only because he needed me to drop off his library book, that was all."

Randall knew about this kid, it was the same boy that Lillian liked, "So what name did he call you this time?"

"Lindsey." She told him as she plopped onto her bed.

The monster really didn't understand why this kid could never get Lillian's name right, "At least it's closer this time, this name actually sounds a little like yours."

"Yeah I guess but this means that he still doesn't know who I am."

"Huh", Randall played with his fingers a little, "What about his little girlfriend?"

"Heather only gave me some dirty look, not that it's any better than what she usually does."

Randall shrugged, "Well at least she didn't say anything ugly to you although, I really don't see why you're falling for this stupid jock."

"Randall, please don't call him that."

"Why not? Heck, he never gets your name right and yet somehow, he's made it up to Jr. high, that's a shock to me."

"He just has a little trouble remembering my name, that's all."

"Yeah or maybe he has amnesia!" Randall told her with a grin.

"If he did then he wouldn't be able to remember anything."

"It's not like your name is that difficult to remember so maybe he's starting to have amnesia."

"He doesn't have amnesia!" she told him.

"How do you know, you're no doctor."

"Yeah, and neither are you!"

The lizard sighed, "Okay, let's talk about something else."

"Yes, let's do that. So how was your day?"

"Nothing special, I scared a couple of kids but you don't want to hear about that."

Lillian grabbed her pillow and chucked it at his head, "Yes I do, tell me!"

Randall laughed as he tossed the pillow back, "Sheesh, I was going to start but you interrupted me!"

"So who was it?"

"Some punky kids, one smelled like he was on something, black shirt with some chick in a bikini on the front."

"You're probably talking about Chad; I swear he is always stoned on something."

"Yes but at least he's the perfect example of why you should never do drugs. Anyway, I didn't do anything special just basic appear disappear and they were out of the house faster than anyone I've ever seen."

"Damn, probably because he thought that it was the drugs making him hallucinate! Did him and his buddies like run out of there screaming or they just bolted?"

"Ran out screaming but it sounded like those annoying high pitched squeals that puny lap dogs make."

Lillian started laughing as she could just imagine the scene in her head, "He's probably going to be telling everyone about it tomorrow, I bet you and then the teachers will probably ask him if he was high when it happened."

"Boy, that should be amusing to watch."

"Yeah but not for him because most of the time when he starts talking about crazy stuff, it's off to the nurse for them to test him and probably, he'll get sent home if he tests positive."

Randall looked at her a bit, "Okay. No offense but being sent home for being high isn't really a punishment. Heck, it's a day off."

"If you're sent home for that, you can't make up the work and you get automatic zeros for that day."

Randall gave a sly grin, "Well, considering his loss of brain cells, I don't think that one missed day is going to hurt his average by much."

Candi made it to the huge mansion near the south end of West Port as she morphed back to normal and entered the house. She saw that Brendan was watching some horror flick, the woman on the screen was screaming as her body was being mangled by the killer. He didn't even look in her direction, "So, do we know where this lizard lives?"

"Kind of." Candi told him.

Brendan gave her a serious look, "There is no kind of, Candi. Either you do or you don't!"

"Wellllll", she began, "I saw him come out of some spooky house on the corner like, um, over there somewheres and I was following him but then I lost him like somewhere near the neighborhood." Brendan just sighed, some help that was, it would have been easier if he would have tracked down this monster himself.

"Do you at least remember where?"

"Um, I think so." Candi told him.

Brendan shut off the TV, "Well you better; you're going to lead me to where this oversized gecko went, now come on!"

"O-K Brendan." She told him as she took on her wolf form and led Brendan to the spot where she had lost track of Randall. They arrived there and so she morphed back, "Okay so like when I turned from that corner then poof, he was gone."

Brendan gave her a funny look, "Unless there is something else about this monster that we don't know, he couldn't have just disappeared. Monsters don't just go poof and vanish out of thin air, you know!"

"But he did", she insisted, "He like went poof and-."

"Shut up for a minute!" he told her as he pulled her over into the shadows. They stayed there as they saw the girl from before walking down the street but she was completely alone yet it sounded like she was talking to herself.

"That's the girl." Candi whispered.

"No shit, Sherlock!" Brendan whispered back.

"So, where do you think she's going?" Candi asked him.

"How the hell should I know but we better follow her."

Lillian made it to a huge warehouse as she looked around to make sure that no one was there, then Randall appeared and they went inside. Candi looked at Brendan as they watched, "And you said that monsters don't just go poof", she told him.

"Because he didn't, think about it, he's basically a reptile and another reptile with that kind of ability is a chameleon."

Candi looked at him a bit puzzled, "So?"

"So what do chameleons do?" he asked her.

"That weird moving eyes thing?"

"No damn it, they blend in, that's what he just did now!"

"Oh!" she told him, finally getting it.

"Okay, now listen. I'll enter through this way while you find an entrance through a window or something, okay?"

"Ooo, are we going to play with the lizard!" she told him excitedly.

"Yes, we're going to play!" he told her with a sly grin on his face. Candi ran off as she followed his orders while Brendan entered through the same entrance that Lillian and Randall just did.

"So, why are we here?"

"I thought it was interesting especially since there's all this junk in crates here, unless you're scared?" Randall teased Lillian.

"Ha ha, I'm not scared." She told him.

Randall went up to one crate, "Wonder what's in them?"

"Well, if we can find a crowbar then we can probably get one open."

Then suddenly she heard a smash as Randall decided to throw the crate down, opening it in the process but was disappointed when it turned out to be empty, "Man, there's nothing in it!"

"Randall, if no one uses this warehouse then it shouldn't be a surprise."

"So why doesn't this boring town find another use for this place?" he asked her.

"I think they were planning to but then the city dropped the idea when no one could come up with any thing better than that."

"That's an awkward name for a monster."

Lillian and Randall froze as they turned to the source of the voice. Leaning against the back wall was some boy; he looked about a year older than Lillian. Randall became nervous as Lillian decided to answer him, "Excuse me but who are you?"

"The name's Brendan, so he's your little monster friend right? Probably another one banished from their world!"

Lillian looked at him for a minute, "How do you know about that?"

"My monster ended up here more or less through the same predicament."

Randall wasn't sure if he heard right, "You're also friends with a monster?"

Brendan shot him an ugly look, "I wouldn't say friends with but I am in charge of one, Candi, please make an entrance!"

Randall heard a noise as he looked to see a female monster, the one that was following him before, sitting on top of the high pile of crates on the other side of the room. She swished her long bushy tail from side to side as she gave a sly little grin, "Hi cutie!"

Randall watched her as she slowly climbed her way down until she was on the ground, strolling over to stand next to Brendan's side. Randall was shocked and at the same time embarrassed, this monster was attractive and the fact that she kept smiling at him made him feel more embarrassment. So much to the point that Randall changed from his usual purple to a dark magenta. Lillian noticed this as she turned her attention to Brendan again, "Not that she isn't interesting but what do you want?"

"I challenge you to a fight!"

"What?"

Randall's color changed back to normal when he heard this, "Why, what did I do to you?"

"Understand that it's nothing personal, just a simple matter of whose monster is the better one so if you think that your lizard has what it takes then accept my challenge!"

"Okay, what does this look like, Pokémon? Randall is not fighting her, I don't see a reason to and above all, violence doesn't solve anything!"

"Yeah, thanks for trying to preach to me on that so do you accept or not, chick!"

"No, I don't see why he has to fight her for and-."

"Lillian, it's okay." Randall told her.

"You're kidding, you actually want to play this guy's game?"

Randall pulled her aside, "Look, I'll go easy on his little friend there besides, she seems like a girl who's just all looks, it's okay, at least we'll send them on their way."

"This is so stupid!" she told him.

"Hey Brendan, is it" Randall began, "I'll fight your little Candi if that's what it takes to get you to leave."

The boy gave a smirk, "Sure, Candi, don't go easy on him."

"Even though he's cute!" she asked. Brendan, who probably would have thrown up at that moment, kept his composure, "Even though. Lizard, you better be ready because she's got more fight than you realize!"


	4. Chapter 4

All MI related characters are property of Disney/Pixar, my characters are property of me, quote from the song "Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide" and is property of Shinedown. After making this my fourth chapter posting, I think that there's nothing wrong with requesting reviews, so if you do like what your reading, whether it's this chapter or my earlier ones, let me know what you think, please keep in mind that I don't take story suggestions, thank you. ^-^

Chapter 4

_She's a steel thrill suicide they say, Cyanide in her plastic veins. She's a mannequin of misery, She's on a bender but she ain't gonna break. Hey, Hey. Taste like sugar but it's novacain, she's grinding teeth so she can sharpen the pain. White lights, Train wreck. Black lips, pale eyes, Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide, She's a killer, She's my Cyanide Sweet Tooth Suicide. _

_-Shinedown_

Randall stood at one side of the warehouse while Candi stood on the opposite side of him, Lillian and Brendan stood some distance behind their monsters.

"So, are there are any rules or what?" Lillian asked him, still miffed about the whole ordeal.

"Actually yeah, this whole building will be their fighting arena; either monster can use what they see in here in order to fight the other. Included in that is any abilities that they posses, any special skills, etc." Brendan explained.

"Is there a time limit?"

Brendan gave a smirk, "Nope, monsters keep fighting till they can't anymore."

"Huh", Lillian responded, "Sounds simple enough, so when do they start?"

"They can start now!" Brendan yelled.

Randall couldn't help but give Candi a dirty look, "Now don't start crying when I win sweetheart!" and with that, he raced towards her.

"Dodge him for now!" Brendan ordered and Candi did just that.

Randall tried to get her with his tail but missed when Candi jumped clear out of the way, keeping a good distance between him and her. Randall just brushed it off and ran to her to try again but just like before, she kept her distance. This strange little game of attack and dodge continued for a little while to the point that it was just getting annoying.

"Damn, do something already!" Randall yelled at her.

Brendan couldn't help but wear a grin, the lizard was fast but apparently to a point, he knew just from watching Candi avoid his attacks that clearly she was faster than him.

"Candi, why don't you comply with his request! Grab him!"

Candi held out her arms and the fur on her body quickly extended in a matter of minutes, the tentacle like strands had grabbed Randall around the neck and strangely enough was actually pulling the lizard slowly towards his opponent. He tried to pull back but the more he tried, the tighter the strands became, if he tried pulling against them too much then for certain he would choke.

Lillian couldn't believe it, "Hey, that's not fair!"

"Yes it is, that's an ability that she has, it's not illegal for her to use it! Candi, get a better grip!"

Soon, more strands wrapped themselves around Randall's body, it wasn't long before he was wrapped up in the hair and was being held some good little distance above the ground, he tried to struggle but couldn't. It didn't make any sense, it was just fur, how the hell could she use them like she could?

"Excellent Candi, now let's wrap this up, send him on a one way ticket to those crates, shall we?" Brendan ordered.

"O-K Brendan", then she turned her attention to Randall, "Bye bye lizard boy, parting is such sweet sorrow but if you wanna go out, call me!"

With that said, she held him high into the air and suddenly tossed him into the crates, his body smashing at least a small third of them from the looks of it. Lillian couldn't help but run to him, "Randall!"

"Huh, that was the shortest fight we've ever had, Candi, let's go!"

Candi started to follow Brendan but then they heard unusual smashing noises as Randall immediately stood up. Both turning, Brendan didn't understand; that blow should have put him in traction, how could he stand up after that? Judging from his thin limbs, he would have at least broken something after that! Lillian could see that fiery look in her friend's eyes that he was pretty mad, "Where are you going, Brendan? This fight isn't over yet!"

"Huh, is that so", Brendan told him then turning his attention to Candi, "Guess we'll have to teach this dumb gecko a lesson!"

Lillian ran over to the side in order to stay out of the way, Brendan just gave out one command, "Grab him!"

Candi did what she did before but this time, Randall got on all eights and waited and just when it looked like that he was in trouble again, he sprinted quickly when Candi made her attempt of grabbing him. Instead, she only smashed up more of the wood of the crates as Randall had dodged out of the way. "What?" Brendan realized that before, Randall wasn't using his full speed obviously. Candi was also just as confused, he couldn't dodge her before so how could he do it now!

It was obvious that this fight was just beginning, Candi tried to grab him again and just like before, he kept dodging her.

"Screw this", Brendan yelled at her, "If you can't grab him than switch gears, get up close and personal!"

Candi nodded as now, she switched tactics; she sprinted to him and quickly gave him a kick to the face, sending Randall against the wall. When he recovered, his eyes got wide as he jumped back; she tried to pummel his body into the wall as she sent another kick his way. Randall took a slight gulp but then he remembered something, "Hey Candi, now you see me, now you don't!"

Then he disappeared out of sight, Brendan was pissed off, "Focus on hearing him!"

Candi closed her eyes but when she felt something grab her from behind, she kicked backwards and sure enough, she got Randall in the stomach as he reappeared. She then quickly kicked him again, sending him against the other wall but when she made a third attempt, he held up his upper arms to block her, then he pushed her back, she nearly lost her footing but regained it quickly. She extended her claws as she now tried to make a swipe for his face, nearly getting him as he moved back. Randall was getting nervous, without his camouflaging ability, hand to hand combat was useless for him. Candi noticed this and went for him, sending kicks and claw swipes at him as he tried to keep up with her. Lillian then ran to stand next to Brendan, "Randall ain't half bad, huh?"

"Please, he's just damn lucky right now!" he shot back.

Randall, now on the defense, was having trouble trying to get a hit in edgewise then when he saw an opening; he whipped his tail around as he got Candi across the face, sending her to the ground. She started to cry, Randall couldn't help but feel that he went too far, he slithered over to her to help her up but when she extended her palm then she quit crying and grinned, "Got ya!"

Immediately, Randall fell into her trap and was wrapped up within the same predicament as before. Lillian couldn't believe that he fell for the hurt girl routine that Candi just pulled on him now!

"Ha, stupid lizard. Candi finish this!" Brendan ordered.

Candi did what she had done before, tossing him into another set of crates across from her. After Randall made impact, Candi skipped over to see if he was down and out now but when she made it to the crates, he wasn't there! "What the-" but before she could finish, Randall reappeared behind her as he wrapped his tail around her body and his upper right arm around her neck.

"Shit." Muttered Brendan under his breath, he wasn't expecting the lizard to make a low attempt like this.

Randall then turned his attention to Brendan, "Now, get lost or she gets it!"

Brendan eyed him for a bit, "You don't have it in you to kill!"

"You honestly want to gamble that now! Like I said, get out of here or she pays for it!"

Brendan just smiled, "Then show me!"

Randall couldn't believe this, he didn't seem to care about what would happen to her, "It wouldn't be hard, all I have to do is constrict my tail and she's a goner!"

"Then stop boasting about it and show me!"

Randall's eyes got dark for a minute; it was obvious that this kid was taking to his bluff. Candi, on the other hand, was so scared right now. She didn't know how Randall was like and whether he would do what he said he would, she decided to take a risk, she was going to puncture his tail with her claws but soon she felt his grip loosen. Immediately, he sighed as he unwrapped his tail from around her body and let her go. Her body fell to the floor as she started to breathe again, she looked up at him, she didn't understand, why go to all that trouble to just let her go?

Randall just looked at her for a minute, "Sorry", was all he told her.

"I knew you didn't have it in you! I knew it!" Brendan told him.

Candi still couldn't help but wonder, "Why, you could have finished me off, why didn't you-", but then her ears perked a bit, "Brendan, someone's coming!"

Randall's fronds also perked a bit too, she was right, "Lillian, let's scram!"

Brendan and Candi took their exit through a high window as Randall and Lillian went for the other door. Before they left, Brendan shot a dark glance to Randall who could see it, that look that was saying this isn't over. After that, Brendan got upon Candi's back as they escaped. Randall pulled Lillian onto his back as he ran up the wall of the building next door and onto the roof.

Once they got a little distance behind them, Randall stopped, "Okay, let's take a quick break."

Lillian got off of him as he allowed his body to plop to the floor. Lillian watched Candi and Brendan until they were out of sight; she was hoping that this was the last they would see of them. Randall could tell that was what she was thinking, "We'll probably run into them again, sooner or later, if he's that determined on fighting me again, that is."

Lillian sighed, "What the hell is his problem! He didn't care about whether she got hurt or not, all he wanted to do was win! God, he's so immature!"

"Hmm, well compared to her, he's probably the mature one of the two, actually."

"Still, you almost scared me for a minute there."

"Hmm?" Randall wondered.

"That whole thing of nearly killing her, I mean, I had a feeling that you were bluffing but that was calling it a bit close, don't you think?"

Randall slithered to her as he rubbed his head against her body, "Sorry about that, I guess I kind of lost it there, I wasn't going to kill her but I guess a few years ago, back in Monstropolis, maybe that's an action I would have taken, the old me, I mean."

Lillian rubbed her face against his, "Yeah well, let's not try that again if it can be helped, okay?"

"Okay", Randall told her with a smile, "Any thing else I shouldn't do again?"

"Yeah, next time when a pretty she-monster tries that little stunt of 'poor me', don't fall for it! That's like the oldest trick in the book for a woman!"

Randall laughed at her comment, "You're right, I really fell for that huh?"

"Hook, blind and sinker." Lillian told him.

"Hey, what can I say, she's kind of cute."

"Well, whatever your opinion of her is, I really don't care but something tells me that he does."

"Huh?" Randall responded, not quite paying attention.

"Man, you must be really smitten by her. I'm talking about her little boyfriend there, Brendan doesn't seem to be the type who'll be okay with male monsters hanging out with her, especially since our 'fight' was put on pause."

"Well, it's not like he's the boss of her, right?"

Lillian gave him a look, "I think that maybe he is. We better head home before it gets too late."

"Sure, hop on." Lillian climbed onto Randall's back as he then continued to hop from rooftop to rooftop, heading back to her house.

Brendan was far from satisfied as far as the fight played out; in fact, he was more pissed off than the time that the drycleaners didn't have his suit ready for some stupid dinner party that his parents threw. Candi sat upon the edging of the building that they traveled to, she could see the anger in his eyes then he turned to her, "What the fuck was that?"

She only gave a slight shrug, "I don't know."

"You don't know? You don't know! That's the best that we can come up with?"

"Well, I guess that we lost." She told him.

"No, hell no! Technically no winner doesn't mean that we lost; it means that we practically tied with that over sized salamander!"

Candi knew that Brendan wasn't happy, "Well, it wasn't my fault that he grabbed me and-."

"Yeah it was your fault, you should have known better than to just stroll up to your enemy after a move like that! Did you forget that this damn monster can disappear as quickly as you can blink!"

Candi started to cry and this time, the tears were real, "Brendan, I'm sorry!"

"Sorry doesn't change what happened just now! Sorry won't erase that embarrassment that I had to undergo because of your ignorance! Sorry can't change the damn past and the damn mistake you made!"

Candi turned away from his gaze, she knew he was disappointed in her, it was a feeling that she didn't like, to know that you disappointed someone and within her life, she had experienced this feeling too many times.

"Also, you are damn lucky that this bastard actually has himself a fucking conscience, if he wanted to he could have killed you, right then and there! You could have been dead and …" Brendan didn't want to think about that, what could have happened to her just now.

"Then why did you egg him on for!" She screamed at him.

"Because I could tell that he didn't have it in him to do that, I was calling his bluff, showing him who was the superior one here, that's why I did that!"

"Gambling with my life doesn't make you superior!" she yelled back.

"Hey, don't raise your voice at me", he told her, "Don't forget that if it wasn't for me, you would probably be strung out in a gutter somewhere or on a dissection table! Don't forget the things that I do for you!"

Candi turned away from him again, "I'm sorry Brendan", she could only whisper.

"Also, don't let me catch you screwing with this one either."

"Huh", Candi looked at him, "But you said that I could do whomever I want, that you don't care?"

"Well, not this one, you'll probably catch whatever diseases he has."

He looked at his cell, it was late sure enough, "All right, we need to head back home if you want me to take you to the mall tomorrow."

"Okay", then she morphed her appearance into a beautiful girl with blond hair, both hanging down and with pig tails, "Will this be a good look for tomorrow?"

"Yes, that'll be fine. Now, you head home."

"But what about you?" Candi asked.

"Don't worry about it; I'll call myself a cab! Now, head home!"

Candi morphed back to normal as she did just that while Brendan climbed down a fire escape and reached the bottom. Once he was on the ground and saw that Candi was gone, his expression changed, "Now, time to find out more about this lizard." He pulled out his phone, he had taken a pic of Randall before their fight started; he would need it for the information that he seeked from the most defenseless monster within West Port.

Down within the confines of the city dump, all kinds of noise could be heard as a small dinosaur like monster was looking for something to eat amongst the new trash that was dropped off today after all, it was garbage day and if there were scraps of food, he would surely find it. His feathered head popped up out of a broken TV as he held in his mouth a half eaten pizza slice. He gladly started to eat as he heard the noise and smelled the scent of human but he knew this scent, he turned to see Brendan, he had seen this human many times before.

The small monster became quite timid, "W-w-w-what do you w-w-want?"

"Just some information about a monster that I and Candi have encountered."

"Sorry, busy right now." The monster told him.

Brendan pulled out a chocolate bar out of his pocket; he made a quick trip to a gas station before coming over here as he opened the wrapper, "If you know something, Weasel, then this candy bar has your name on it."

Weasel as the little monster was called, could smell the candy and ran over to grab it from Brendan's hands but it was pulled out of his reach, "First tell me what I want to know, what do you know about some lizard named Randall?"

Weasel's little brain tried to think as he scratched his head, "Don't know."

Brendan pulled out his phone as he showed the little monster the picture, "Oh, that Randall", Weasel told him.

"You know him?"

"Uh yeah, he doesn't enjoy my company too much."

"Who does?"

"Yeah, good point", Weasel began, "Anyway, I know him, he lives in the old musician's house on the corner. Hangs out with that girl named Lillian, she's nice to me, one time she gave me some fries that she was eating and-."

"Yeah, that's nice", Brendan interrupted, "Now, back to Randall, how long has he lived here?"

"About a couple of years."

"Do you know why he was banished?" Brendan asked.

"Yeah, he told me it was 'cause he nearly tried to kill some kid with a machine that he built, to extract screams or something like that although I heard from some newbie banished monster that now they use laugh energy instead, it's like way better, too bad I didn't know that, could have discovered that instead of embezzling scream energy, wouldn't be out here you know."

"So, he could be possible of killing then why didn't he kill her?"

"Who?" Weasel asked.

"Candi."

"What, is she okay?" Weasel asked worried, obviously because he had a love for her that would never be returned no matter what.

"She's fine, he just tried to bluff but that was it, all talk and no action."

"I don't know about no action, Randall sometimes ends up in little scraps with Scourge who tends to start them, may I add. Although, most of the time, Randall tries to avoid him, we all do, he's just nasty!" Weasel timidly explained.

"Huh, well that's all I needed to know." Brendan began to walk off until he heard, "Hey what about me?"

"Hmm", he then remembered, "Oh yeah, here." He tossed the candy as Weasel gladly went after it and ate it up, he had a sweet tooth despite his means of living.

The next morning, just like Brendan had promised, he and Candi whom had morphed into her human appearance went to the mall. She tried on tons of clothes which consisted of so many different blouses, jeans, skirts, you name it. After she tried them on, as usual, she picked out her favorites and of course left it up to Brendan in order to purchase whatever she picked. For a normal fourteen year old, she would be considered any guy's nightmare but for Brendan, it was a simple drop in the bucket making her purchases. After all, his family was considered one of the richest in West Port and since money was clearly not in a short supply for his family, it meant Candi could have whatever she wanted as far as stuff was concerned. She practically skipped out of the department store, holding three bags in her hands with new outfits to try on. All of this shopping was clearly making her forget all about yesterday and her goof up. Then it was on to makeup, another favorite thing that Candi loved to buy. Brendan just leaned against the wall as she compared different shades of lipstick. His thoughts were not on relaxing or taking it easy but instead were on Randall, he know had more information thanks to Weasel but that still didn't help in the case of trying to beat the guy. Brendan had to think, there had to be an easy way on beating the lizard, he knew that the monster was fast and could camouflage himself but as long as Candi didn't goof around like last time, handling Randall should have been easy. Still, there had to be a way to beat him, there had to be!

Candi couldn't help but notice out of the corner of her eye that some guy in a t-shirt and jeans was checking her out, clearly finding something to stare at and it sure as hell wasn't her face. She turned her gaze and gave the guy a small smirk, now the guy nodded at her with a dark smile of his own, now he was interested in more than just staring.

"Hey Brendan, I'm going to talk to that guy over there, can I?" she asked.

Brendan watched the guy who clearly didn't notice him, "Fine, I don't care, just make it quick!"

She smiled as she strolled over to the guy who now tried a different approach, "Hey, what's up?"

Candi giggled at his statement, "Not much, couldn't help but notice that you were staring at me. Was there something so fascinating about me?"

The guy looked her up and down, "Can't help it, a beautiful lady such as yourself causes a lot of attention, you know." She giggled again, this little dumb girl routine she pulled was quite a common thing she did and of course, every guy loved it!

"You know what, I was going to try on some little cute outfits, some lingerie, maybe you can give me a second opinion on that." She told him as she traced her hands down his chest, it was obvious what she was asking.

The guy smirked at her with the darkest grin any guy could wear, "Of course, anything to help out."

Candi smiled as she grabbed his hand and pulled the guy to the fitting room, looking around to make sure that no employees spotted them. Brendan knew where this was leading but personally, he didn't care. She only posed as his girlfriend; nothing more, so what she did with guys was no concern to him. Once inside the fitting room, she couldn't help but giggle more as she once again played into the whole routine, "So, does it matter what we do?"

"Do what you like, I don't care." He told her with a smirk once again. Candi couldn't help but act all sexy, "Okay", and with that, she slowly began to unbutton her top, loving the expression of this guy as he watched her. Then another piece of clothing came off, from under the door, one piece after another hit the floor. Soon, loud breathing and moans could be heard, causing other customers in the rooms next to theirs wondering what the hell was going on. Brendan looked at his cell, "Damn, I'll just wait for her at the food court; she'll call me when she's done." He took his leave while Candi had her fun, after about half an hour, her and the guy went separate ways but not without him leaving her his number. Candi enjoyed playing with this boy and looked forward to the next time that she could play with him again.


	5. Chapter 5

I guess I'll try to talk a bit about new chapters I upload, in this chapter we get to see a little bit from Monstropolis and not all entirely focused in the city of West Port. Randall and respective characters are property of Disney/Pixar, my characters are property of me, quote from the song "Call Me" by Shinedown. A slight bit of trivia, Agent twenty five is a referrence to something, think you know what it is? If you do enjoy this story or even any of the chapters, please leave a review and let me know of what you think.

Chapter 5

_Call me a sinner, Call me a saint, Tell me it's over, I'll still love you the same, Call me your favorite, Call me the worst, Tell me it's over, I don't want you to hurt, It's all that I can say so I'll be on my way. _

_-Shinedown_

The start of the school week came and as the week drudged on, Lillian was under some major stress of class and such. It was near the end of Wednesday, she had done a test in first period which she tried so hard to study for but yet, wasn't sure if she passed even with a C at the most, she had to write a report for history relating to an event of sheer importance but what she still hadn't decided yet, and then of course, she was trying her best in hoping that they wouldn't be bumping into Brendan any time soon again. Once she got what she needed from her locker, she immediately took off towards the library, normally she would swing by Randall's place to talk for a bit but considering how much work needed to be done on her report, she figured he would swing by later that night like he did sometimes. As she walked down the concrete steps of the Jr. High, she bumped into a tall, blond haired girl and accidentally knocked her books to the ground.

"Oh man, sorry about that." She explained as she helped her pick up her books.

"No biggie." The girl told her but then Lillian couldn't help but freeze. The girl's voice sounded so familiar but it couldn't be, could it?

The girl looked at her funny too as she quickly grabbed her books back from Lillian, "Well, better go, O-K?"

"Um, sure." Lillian answered her. She couldn't help but notice that this girl's eyes had flashed from their emerald color to a bright blue for a few seconds in the light, that was quite a strange thing to see. Lillian watched the girl as she began to walk home, she had to focus, this girl couldn't be that monster Candi, it was impossible but then again? If Randall could blend into his environment, then who was to say that Candi couldn't do things such as changing her physical appearance altogether. Oh come on, that's crazy, she couldn't help but think, she needed to re focus her thoughts on that history report that she needed to get started on.

The girl walked and turned around one of the corners of the school, she then peeked around to make sure that Lillian wasn't following her, when she didn't see the girl then she breathed a sigh of relief. The girl then entered one of the side doors, going straight to her locker, for whatever strange reason she decided to put her whole backpack inside and closed the locker door without a second thought. Once she had left the grounds of the school and was a good distance away, she climbed up a nearby fire escape and pulled herself up onto the roof. She figured that the coast was clear as she shook her body, changing into Candi. The female monster felt like having some fun, since Brendan was meeting some of the guys to work on homework in the library, it meant that she could do whatever she wanted. She leapt from rooftop to rooftop, to her it was like a little game that she couldn't help but enjoy. The monster was bored as she decided to find someone to play with her.

As night fell, Randall couldn't help but notice that Lillian never came over after school which wasn't a big deal really. He decided to take the time to unwind, climbing up the sides of buildings as he leapt from the roof tops, making incredible distance but he had practice in the field so it wasn't hard. Then he stopped upon one rooftop as he then slithered down to the alley way below. The monster's mind was somewhere else than the usual way of thinking. He couldn't help but think about Candi, she was quite a beautiful monster but despite that, the chances of him bumping into her in this city were minimal. At that moment, she happened to be upon the roof top that was above where Randall stood. She looked down as she smiled, her heart beating faster as she watched him. Then she remembered what Brendan said, to stay away from this one. Her attraction to him was stronger than Brendan's warning. She slowly climbed her way down as she then noticed that for whatever reason, he wasn't even paying attention to what was happening around him. She brushed her tail against his as Randall immediately turned his head to see her, wait, where did she come from? He kept a little distance from her, watching her with such caution.

Candi smiled at him but knew why he was acting so strange, "What's wrong lizard boy? You scared?"

Randall still kept his eyes on her, "Me? Scared? No, but where's Mr. Macho at?"

"Oh, you must mean Brendan", she told him with a slight hint of mischief in her voice, "He's busy doing homework, boring stuff, I was trying to find something to do, that's all."

She now was in front of him, simply acting so mysterious; even he couldn't quite figure her out. Then she smiled at him as she then approached him, Randall wasn't sure of what she was doing so he slowly took a step back as she took a step forward. She wore a smile that truly would suit the devil as she continued to take steps forward until suddenly, Randall felt his back end hit the wall of the alley, apparently he hadn't noticed how he was now cornered.

She giggled, "Are you afraid of me? I'm not here to play that old game from before; I want to play a new one."

Now he was clueless to what she meant, "What kind of game? Hide and seek, checkers, I'm not really a games kind of…", then he stopped, for whatever reason, she was slowly tracing her claws down his chest, "Uh, heh, what are you doing?"

"I like your scales, how they feel against my claws, it's such a turn on you know."

"A turn on?"

She laughed at his nervousness, "Yeah. Tell me, exactly what would you want to do?"

Now he really didn't know where this was going, "Okay, sorry but you lost me there."

She then traced down his stomach as she rubbed her claws against his scales but then her claws went further down until it became obvious where she was going. The reptilious monster immediately grabbed her hand, "Okay, that's far enough, don't you think?"

"What's the matter", she told him as she got closer to him, "You haven't been with a girl like that before? Or maybe, it's been a long time since that, huh?"

"Well, I, um, what I mean is-."

"It's okay, like I said; I want to play a new game now, not the same as before."

Now she had wrapped her arms around his neck and somehow, Randall had also wrapped his arms around her, that space closing, wait, when did he do that? He couldn't recall, somehow he was enjoying this, the lustful behavior that she was displaying.

"How about we go back to my place, we can play house if you want, I'll be the mommy and you can be the daddy, we'll have lots of fun. Anything you want to do, I'm more than willing to do." She told him with such a low and slow whisper.

Now she was just inches away from him, they were so close that just maybe they could kiss, not that he wouldn't want that but, this girl, she was younger than him that was for certain. His mind was screaming that it was wrong to do this with someone he knew so little about but his heart was yelling go for it, she said it was okay so how could it be wrong.

"Look, it's just, I don't know you." He told her.

"Then you can get to know me…" she answered back.

Randall didn't care, he longed for her, he wanted her, just when their lips were about to touch then suddenly, a loud crash could be heard as a trashcan fell over with Weasel falling right out of it. The two monsters were startled for a moment as Randall was snapped back into reality. Candi, now frustrated by the sudden interruption, then quickly turned as she gave the small monster a scornful look.

He could see the look of anger and frustration coming from both monsters as he gave a nervous chuckle, "Heh, heh, hey you two, so, um, whatcha doing?"

Candi sighed, "What do you want, you little twit?"

"What, nothing, I was just in the neighborhood and hey, thought I would drop by. So Candi, maybe I could come play your little game?" he told her, trying to be sly.

The female monster just turned her face away from him, "Sorry, I've got somewhere to be!"

Weasel's little heart sunk, he had no chances with her no matter how hard he tried.

She then turned back to Randall, "On second thought, maybe we should consider playing another time."

She rubbed her tail underneath his chin playfully as she took her leave, going up a fire escape and on top of the roof and just like that, she was gone. Randall couldn't help but feel so in love at that moment, he knew that this was the girl he was waiting for. Weasel, on the other hand, couldn't help but notice that Randall was acting funny, almost like he had ate something strange.

"Hey Randall, yoo-hoo, Randall? Earth to Randall, come in lizard boy. Hello!" he gave a sigh, nothing was working.

Weasel walked over to Randall's tail and grabbed it with his claws, "Randall, don't be mad at what I am about to do, after all, somebody needs to snap you out of it", and with that said, he bit the monster's tail.

It took about a split second for Randall's brain to register what was happening as he quickly yelled and pulled his tail out of Weasel's mouth, "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR", he screamed.

"Hey, don't get mad at me! Someone needed to snap you out of lala land there."

"Well you could have just said something, you know!"

Weasel couldn't believe this, "I did! You weren't listening!"

Randall wanted to strangle the little guy but held back, telling himself that despite his annoying behavior, the little monster wasn't worth it. Then his thoughts went back to Candi, "Hmm, wonder when she'll come around again?"

"Huh", then it became clear to Weasel, "Oooooh, I get it!"

Randall could see his little smirk, "What? What are you smiling about?"

"You like her, huh? Well you're not the only one."

Randall didn't get what he was saying, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Weasel just smiled, "Let's just say that she has friends, lots of friends."

"Okay, that just tells me that she's a popular monster, so what?"

Weasel just shook his head, "You'll find out in time", then he heard squeaking as the two monsters saw a small rat, "Now if you'll excuse me, it's dinner time."

Randall watched as Weasel gave chase after the rat and chased it around the corner of the building; he couldn't help but shake his head in disgust. Randall wasn't the type of monster to kill another animal, he just couldn't bring himself to do it, that's why he snuck into the supermarket to take food instead, at least there the meat was already dead. Then it dawned on him how late it was, Lillian's mother had to of left for work by now. He climbed up the other side of the building as he decided to head over to her house.

Lillian was already home and sure enough, her mother had left for the late shift again but that wasn't on her mind right now. She was thinking about what happened at the library before she left. While she was there, she kept hearing guys at one of the tables talking amongst themselves but when she heard one voice in particular, immediately she knew whom it was. She had discovered at that moment that Brendan was there with some friends of his studying but when she recognized one of the guys as some eighth grader who for whatever reason had the same science class as her, it became obvious just how hard it would be to avoid Brendan. Then that wasn't the weirdest part either, part of the conversation involving talking about Brendan's girlfriend who happened to be called Candi. Coincidence? She didn't think so but wasn't this boy risking not only his involvement with the monster but also her true identity if in reality she somehow found a way to pose as his girlfriend? Wait a minute, you're getting ahead of yourself, you don't even know if she could shape shift or whatever, Lillian thought. After all, she was no monster expert which then led to her next thought, it would probably make sense to ask Randall the next time she saw him. Suddenly, the usual tap at her window, such good timing.

She opened it and as usual, Randall slipped inside and reappeared once in but he then noticed that she had about four library books on her computer desk, "Oh so that's where you were today. Got a report to do?"

"Yep, a history report, major part of my grade, you know."

"Ah yes", Randall began, "High school, four of the most boring years of my life! Did date a couple of girls who found me quite appealing though so can't fully complain."

Lillian looked at him funny, "Randall, I'm in seventh grade, still have about two years before I get there."

"Oh yeah, well, I don't remember too much from Jr. High if you will, a little bit of a blur but that's not important right now, do you know what you're going to do on it?"

"I'm working on it." She told him.

The monster then noticed that she had her DS out, "So, got any good games on there?"

"I don't have any shooters if that's what you're asking." She knew how he loved playing those at the arcade. The reptilious monster shrugged as he picked up the handheld and gave her a questioning look.

"Go ahead, just play on a different file, okay?"

"Sure", Randall turned it on to reveal that she had that Super Mario game, something that stuck to buttons mainly. He started playing and got started on the first level, Lillian watched him and couldn't help but smile, she found it quite strange that despite their differences, they weren't too different at all. Then her mind went back to what she had thought of earlier, "Hey Randall?"

"Yes." He answered without giving her a glance, obviously in a game zone moment.

"Have you ever heard of a monster that could change their physical appearance?"

"Uh, change as in how?"

She tried to phrase this as best as possible, "Who could shape shift, morph, you know, be one thing and physically change into another?"

He paused at that moment as he looked up, "Are we talking like evolution?"

"No."

"Oh, okay then." Then back to the game.

"I mean more like, you know, like in alien movies in where they disguise themselves like humans kind of change. In where they can still change back, that kind."

She waited a bit as she didn't get back any kind of response, she sighed, now he was really into the game. The teenager got up and walked over to him, grabbing the DS out of his hands, "Well?"

Randall just gave her a look, "Sorry to say this but I don't know. It's not like I know everything about my own world too you know. There are other species of monsters that I'm sure even I've never seen before. Where are we going with this?"

"It's just that, I accidentally bumped into this girl after school but her voice sounded familiar to me then at the library, Brendan was there with some friends of his."

"What? Did he say anything to you?"

"No but they talked about him having a girlfriend whom they called 'Candi'? Doesn't that tell you something?"

The lizard wasn't too sure but then it dawned on him, "You think this girl you bumped into was his girlfriend?"

"Yes…well, maybe but that's not it. Isn't it possible that Candi could change into another form to pose as his girlfriend?"

The lizard rubbed the back of his head which Lillian knew was one of his little habits when it came to keeping something from her, "Okay, spill it."

The lizard sighed as he got up off the floor, "You remember that white dog we saw after all that mess with Scourge?"

She shook her head to show that she understood, "Well, I saw it again, that dog followed me but when I gave it the slip, it changed into a monster, a female actually. You can probably guess about who we're talking about now."

"You mean that dog was actually Candi? Then that confirms it!"

"Wait a minute", Randall told her, "How can you be sure that this girl is also her? No offense but almost all of you teenage girls sound the same to me."

"Her eyes did this weird thing in the light; they changed from green to blue but only in the light. I will be honest, I've never seen a human eye do that."

"Well, that's not too common for monsters either." He explained.

Lillian couldn't help but be frustrated, "One thing I don't get, if that girl is Candi then why would Brendan have her attend school? She's probably an adult so why go through all that again since I'm sure that she already went through school back in your world."

Randall had a thought, "Well, maybe he kind of controls her, has her attend to keep her close, you know, keep an eye on her."

"Maybe but isn't he risking the possibility of her being revealed?"

"Not if she can do this morphing thing for long periods of time. If all everyone else sees is just a human and since kids lose their belief in monsters at a younger age, it won't even cross anyone's mind about what she really is. Thinking that way would sound like something out of science fiction. Still, he would only pose as her boyfriend, right? They wouldn't be dating for real, would they?"

"I don't think so", then Lillian noticed that Randall seemed relieved to hear that, "What did you do?"

"What? You can't be serious, what did I do? Nothing, absolutely….well, let's just say that she kind of came on to me."

"She what? Please don't tell me that you-!"

"NO, sheesh, we didn't do anything! Actually it was only going to be a kiss but then stupid Weasel showed up!" Randall explained.

"Randall, I really don't think you should be flirting with her considering how much of a jerk that Brendan was!"

"I wasn't flirting with her, she was flirting with me!" he told her defensively.

"Flirting how?"

"She kept dropping hints and even wanted to invite me back to her place, for you know, to play as she put it. Then when dummy head Weasel showed, she changed her mind and ran. He said something about her having lots of friends, but hey, I don't really care about what he says."

Lillian started laughing, "Randall, I think he means guy friends, as in, her coming on to you is the sort of thing she does to begin with. I don't think she came on to you because she actually found you interesting. Sounded more like she wanted a one nighter."

The lizard was shocked at the girl's language, "For your information, I am quite the ladies man and a gentleman to boot. I am not one of these pigs who intentionally looks for a girl to screw and moves on to the next one!"

"And that's a good thing. Trust me, there's not too many of those guys at my school."

"Yeah well, teenage boys aren't experts when it comes to women." He explained.

"True", she told him, "But you're acting as if the only pigs out there are just men though. There can be women who are just as much as pigs as men, it's just, guys really don't complain about it."

The lizard just laughed to himself, "I really don't think that you can see me as quite a catch since I'm just your friend, I assure you, if she's looking for a man then she was looking in the right place."

Lillian gave up, Randall could be a little cocky sometimes and despite her age, it seemed that once a guy got like that, there was no talking to them. Human or monster, they all seemed the same when it came to this.

"Just be careful, okay? If this girl isn't really what she seems, I don't want you getting hurt." she asked him.

"Okay, okay, I'll be careful, I promise. Now maybe you should get back to this report. I could help you if you want?"

She smiled, "Sure, try running a search if you can about World War II while I try getting some info out of these books if possible."

Within the monster world, there was a meeting held between a small few of the CDA or better yet, the Child Detection Agency. The small few consisted of a couple of agents including their top agent, Number One Roz. The meeting was a strange one; apparently the CDA was dealing with a slight problem which involved the assigned children to the company known as Monsters Incorporated. Roz stared with her usual blank look at her fellow agents, "Alright, what do we got?"

An agent numbered twenty five decided to speak, "Number One, as you are aware, since the end of the scream shortage, the number of dead doors that have been shredded has cut down immensely although there are still a few here or there."

Roz adjusted her glasses, "Number Twenty Five, just because we switched from one type of energy to another doesn't mean that there still won't be dead doors. It's been about four years and despite this, we have learned that during that time, just like how children eventually overcome their fear of monsters, the same goes for their amusement with monsters. When children start to get to a certain age, they will be interested in other things, no longer finding the usual jokes from a monster amusing or even funny. When that happens, just like before the energy switch, their doors are marked for shredding since if we can't collect laugh energy from them then there is no point of keeping the door around. Now should I go further or are we done?"

The agent understood what she said perfectly, "I know that, Number One, but I noticed that even though the number of dead doors has cut down, it doesn't change the fact that there are a small number of doors that are being shredded. This small number consists of closet doors of children who all have one thing in common; they live within the same area. I couldn't help but notice that during the past two months, there have been eight doors that have been shredded but it's not for the reasons that we think. I understand that humans aren't truly a concern to us but these eight children when I did my research, well, it turns out that they are children that died due to murder."

Now this caught the attention of Roz, "So tell me, what your suspicions are?"

"Well, it may seem a little farfetched but I suspect that maybe this could possibly be the work of a banished monster."

Roz couldn't help but sigh, "Gentlemen, if this is the case then we truly have a situation upon our hands. If this is the work of a human then it's not our concern but if it is the work of a banished monster, things could get complicated. If a banished monster is captured by the humans, who knows if he or she will be more than willing to tell of our world and how it can be accessed. It could be the end of all monster life as we know it. We will need to do some undercover work and try to monitor what happens within the human world. Along with that, we'll need to look back in our files of all the banished monsters and try to figure out who it could be. Number Twenty Five, is Mr. Sullivan even aware of this or even noticed the trend that you have?"

He thought about it, "Well, it's hard to tell, I've noticed that he has been looking at the number of shredded doors but like I said, it's difficult to tell if he has even noticed."

Roz stood up from the table as she began to walk around the conference room, "Gentlemen, until we have more information, we will need to keep this private which means, no word of this to Mr. Sullivan. If he does hear something of it, I fear that he may try to investigate on his own and depending on how dangerous this monster could be, the last thing we need is a headline of the current CEO found dead. No word and as an extra measure, keep an eye on him, understood?" The agents nodded to show that they got the message, Roz took their nods as reassurance, "Good, agents, you're free to go."


	6. Chapter 6

The next chapter of my story and also, one of the few breaking points within the plot. Randall is property of Disney/Pixar, my characters are mine, quote from Shinedown's "Devour" and is property of them. Please review if you like this chapter or the story in general.

Chapter VI

_Devour, devour, Suffocate your own empire. Devour, devour, It's your final hour. Devour, devour, Stolen like a foreign soul. Devour, devour, What a way to go. _

_-Shinedown_

Scourge was upon the highest point of the city, looking down upon the town of West Port, just watching the people and cars below. He felt disgusted by them, disgusted by their appearances and their ways. Then suddenly, a young woman caught his eye, a teenage girl that looked about maybe fifthteen, sixteen maybe? He wasn't too good with ages if they were a little older but still, the woman looked enticing. Woman? Please, being a teenager didn't qualify her as a woman, a young lady maybe, but not a woman. He watched her as she then bid goodbye to her friends and then took off in a different direction on her own.

"Well, that's not too smart, pretty girl, bad judgment though."

A dark smile crawled over his lips as he then began to follow her from upon the rooftops of the buildings. The girl after some time then felt that strange feeling, the kind of being followed or watched. She looked around but she didn't see anybody, regardless, she began to walk faster. Then suddenly, a loud noise was heard, she spun around startled but couldn't see anything within the darkness.

"Hello? Is someone there?" She received no response but still tried to be brave, "I have mace so you better back off!"

Still nothing but she decided to go ahead and sprint because something told her that someone was following her. Scourge actually found her quite enjoyable, he got on all fours as he took off at a run and when he got close enough, pounced and pinned her against a wall. Having one clawed hand over her mouth and using the other to pin her, he could see the look of hysteria in her eyes. He could tell that she couldn't believe what she was seeing or what was happening. He only growled as he then noticed where they were, it was the old abandoned warehouse, the same one where Randall and Candi had their fight. He forced the girl inside as he then tossed her to the floor, she tried to get up but then Scourge kicked her down. He then grabbed her by her hair as he forced her to sit up. She started crying, trying to yell but Scourge just kept growling at her to shut up.

"You shouldn't be crying, for a human, you're not half bad so quit bawling already!"

Then he used his claws to cut off her shirt, finding her more interesting than he could have imagined. It was strange just how sick of a mind he had, but then he noticed some of the wooden crates, and soon he had a dark look in his eyes. She could see it as she begged for him to let her go but he simply ignored her pleas, forcing her over to the crates and pushing her onto one. He allowed his claws to play with the ruffles of her skirt, soon groping the human as he felt it, his own needs that he felt had to be fulfilled. The girl tried to get up but he used his strength to keep her grounded and soon, forced himself onto her.

From outside the warehouse, her cries and screams could be heard but there was no one near to actually hear them, to come and help her. Fifthteen minutes had passed and soon, the deed was done. The girl sat there on the floor, she huddled near one of the crates as she just screamed and cried from what had happened to her, to what this creature had done to her. Scourge simply gave her a stern look, he really didn't care about what was bothering her, he could care less really.

"You really need to stop crying." He told her annoyed.

"Why, why should I! You're a monster, you hear me! A fucking monster!" She yelled at him.

Scourge approached her as she then tried to huddle against the crates once more, "Well, not going to lie to you about that although", he then made a clean swipe at her neck, "From where I'm standing, you're the monster, not me!"

Blood flowed down as her body then fell limp, she was gasping but the more she tried to breath, the more blood she would just cough up.

He simply laughed, "I'll just leave you here, the police will find you but by the time they do, you'll be dead."

He walked away from the scene as if nothing had ever happened, leaving her bleeding body there. When he exited the warehouse, he then saw little Weasel hiding near one of the dumpsters.

He just glared at the little monster, "What?"

"I heard screams, please don't tell me that you did what I think you…" but little Weasel couldn't finish.

"Well Weasel, you know me, you know how I'm like so go ahead and guess all you want but you probably have a good idea about what I did." Scourge then leaped on top of another dumpster and used it to scale up to the rooftops as he left Weasel, the little monster could only stand there, "Why Scourge, what reason do you have to kill?"

A few weeks had passed since that night, the body of the girl was found and just like the others, suspicions were made about who her killer was but as usual, the evidence was very strange even for the police to figure out. At the same time, a few weeks had passed since Randall had seen Candi and since her flirtatious request. He was hoping to see her again but just like he couldn't find her before, he couldn't find her now. She, on the other hand, was doing her usual thing of playing with any boys she had seen. After school, she was walking towards her school locker in order to get some books from it but then she froze as she saw Lillian standing next to it.

Candi just held her head up high as she gave the girl a smile, "Oh hi again, didn't expect to see you here in the eighth grade hall?"

Lillian wasn't sure if she was pretending to not know her but she decided to play along, "I just feel kind of bad about the whole thing of knocking your books to the floor, just thought that maybe I could make it up to you if that's okay."

Candi was confused a bit, "Oh, but it was an accident, you didn't mean to, it's no biggie really."

She opened her locker and grabbed her books as she then decided to take off, "Well, I better go, meeting my guy at the mall."

"You're going out with Brendan, right?"

Candi froze as she slowly turned to look at her, "Uh, yeah, he's my man, you know? He loves doing stuff for me, taking me to the movies, the mall, basic boyfriend-girlfriend stuff."

Lillian then thought of something, "Hey, think it's okay if I walk with you?"

Candi gave it some thought, there was no harm in it, "Sure, I don't mind."

They started walking down the hallway as Lillian looked at her eyes, she couldn't help but notice that her eyes was doing that strange color changing thing in the light just like she had told Randall.

Candi noticed that Lillian was staring, "What? Is there something on my face?"

"Huh, oh no, it's just that…nah, it's kind of stupid."

"Oh what? Is it something interesting, a secret?" Candi asked excited.

"It's just", Lillian began, "Your eyes do some strange thing, that's all."

Candi looked nervous, "Uh, I wear contacts, nothing more."

Lillian eyed her funny, that made no freaking sense whatsoever. Then they made it outside as they saw Brendan waiting for her but then his expression changed to one of concern, "What are you doing here?"

Lillian just smiled, "I go to school here. Well, I guess I'll see you around Candi."

"Bye!" but then Candi saw that look from Brendan which meant one thing, not good. Brendan and Candi got into his limo as he rolled up the window separating the driver from the back. There was a brief amount of silence until, "What were you doing talking to her?"

"Uh, actually, she was waiting at my locker." Candi answered him.

"Why?"

"She felt bad about bumping into me by accident some time ago, she wanted to make it up to me."

"When was this?"

Candi thought back, "A few weeks, why?"

Brendan just sighed, "Why the hell would she take that long to freaking apologize? It's obvious what she was doing."

"That depends, what was she doing?" Candi asked.

Brendan gave her a glare, "She suspects you and what you really are", he told her without trying to raise his voice at her. Candi just looked away from him then Brendan had a feeling, "You flirted with that salamander, didn't you?"

"Well, I-."

"Didn't you!" he interrupted.

Candi just looked at him, "Maybe a little bit."

"What the fuck did I tell you?" he said as he waited for an answer.

"You said to not flirt with him?"

"Damn right I did, and what do you do? The complete damn opposite of what I said!"

Candi tried to keep herself from crying but it was really hard, "I'm sorry but I couldn't help it, he's so cute and-."

"That's not an excuse! When I tell you something then just listen, damn it!"

The limo came to a stop, they were already at the mall, "Try to look happy while we here, if you don't mind!" he told her. Candi nodded as she put on a smile when the driver opened her door to let her out and she thanked him for doing so.

Lillian was pretty sure that she had her proof or well, maybe she did but when she approached Randall's place then she noticed that the door was open a slight bit, that was odd. When she went inside, she heard the song that she had taught Randall to play being played quite slowly, he was bothered by something. She entered the music room to see him slowly playing the song key by key as he looked slightly depressed, "Okay, what's wrong?"

He hadn't noticed her come in as he looked at her and then back to the piano, "It's that girl, I couldn't find her, that's all."

"Well, I think that I'm pretty sure that Candi does pose as Brendan's girlfriend, I talked to that girl I told you about a few weeks ago, when we went to meet up with Brendan, he didn't look too happy."

This caught the reptile's attention, "Really, that's interesting. Maybe we could try looking for her after dark, you in?"

Lillian just stared, "You're really not going to give up on this girl, are you?"

She didn't see why she even asked, she already knew his answer, "Fine, but only because you're my friend, normally I don't play treasure hunt."

Randall was so happy, "Thanks Lillian" he answered as he rubbed his face against hers.

"Yeah, yeah, but you owe me big for this lizard boy."

Night fell and the two went out searching, going from rooftop to rooftop wasn't easy, especially since Randall was carrying Lillian on his back. Eventually, their search brought them to the parking lot for the mall but there were practically no cars, the few that were there were probably late night janitors.

"Randall, I don't think she's out tonight, we've gone everywhere." Lillian told him. The monster wasn't giving up so easy, "Maybe we could split up, I'll search the upper levels while you search the lower."

Lillian just sighed as she then went to the elevator, going down to the first level, and then taking a walk around, why does he have to be so stubborn, she thought. Then she bumped into a person, "I'm sor…what? What are you doing here?" She asked when she saw that she had bumped into Brendan.

He glared at her, "None of your business! So, where's your little pet?"

"Excuse me, Randall's not my pet besides where's your little monster at?"

"Playing house with some scum, probably."

Lillian was confused, "What do you mean?"

Randall had gotten to the top when he heard giggling, sounded like somebody was having fun. "So, you like this game?" He heard her voice, Candi was here but suddenly, he heard another, "Of course but I think that you like it more than me." Randall wasn't sure but it sounded like she was talking to some guy, he followed the voices but then when he went around a car, he saw her near the end of the lot but she was with some other monster, it was some strange one with tentacles. He couldn't believe it, she was talking to this one the same way she had talked to him before, it became apparent about what Weasel meant. She then wrapped her arms around the other monster but then froze when she saw Randall, "Oh, um, hey."

The other monster turned to see him, "Oh, you want to join or what?"

"No" , he told them, "I was just leaving."

With that said, Randall got on all eight and ran off from the scene. Candi couldn't believe it, "I'll be right back", and with that, she took off after him.

Lillian waited for an answer but then she heard noise as she saw Randall running from the higher level to the lower and leaving the scene with Candi chasing after him. Then a shadow formed from the top level as she looked up to see the other monster who only looked down from the top level and then moved out of sight. It became obvious now what Brendan meant but he only laughed, "Well, guess play time is over now, too bad your pet had to learn the hard way huh?" Lillian, now furious, pushed Brendan against the wall, "He's not my pet! He's my friend but at least he's not a tramp like her!" She had enough of him as she took off after the two monsters. Normally under these kind of circumstances, Brendan wouldn't take that sort of crap from anyone but something told him that it was best to leave it alone this once.

Randall didn't know how far he had ran, it was late and there was nobody around anyway so it wasn't like it had mattered. He quickly scaled up the side of a building and stopped to rest once he had reached his destination. The reptile wanted to cry but his possible chance to display tears was replaced by anger. He was furious to see that this was what Weasel had meant, this was what he had meant all along. Next to that fury was a broken hearted type of sadness, the possible fact that her supposed display of affection for him was nothing more but a ploy to get him to screw her if one was to put it lightly. There were so many different emotions playing with his head right now but it was just too much for him to handle. If only he hadn't persisted for them to search for Candi then he wouldn't have had to see that, to realize the truth and so he could have continued to hold feelings for her even if it was in ignorance.

"Randall?"

His fronds stood up straight as he turned to the sound of Candi's voice, she had caught up to him. Immediately, he was angry as he turned away from her, "What do you want", he questioned.

"I wanted to know what was wrong? Why did you leave like that?" she asked him.

"What was wrong? You want to know what was wrong", he couldn't believe what she was asking, "You can't be serious? WHAT WAS WRONG? What I would like to know is who the hell that was?"

Candi looked to the ground, she knew that he was referring to the other monster, "Oh, well, he's just a friend, that's all."

"Just a friend…you honestly expect me to believe that some random monster that I just saw you flirting and messing with was just a friend. Well, he's one hell of a friend, I'll give him that!"

She didn't understand, "This is really bothering you, isn't it?"

"Hell yeah it's bothering me. I thought that you liked me, maybe that was the reason that you came on to me…but now, after seeing that…it's obvious that you don't feel that way, do you?"

Now Candi was in an odd predicament, never once in her life did she have a monster actually find her appealing because he claimed that he had love for her. Even though they always told her how beautiful she was, how lovely she was, how much they loved her and would give her the world, deep down she knew that they never meant it. They never meant one word that they had told her and only hoped that by telling her such things that their chances for getting lucky would be better. Only one monster had ever told her those sort of things because he claimed that he had loved her but she never told him things like that back, the most powerful monster she had ever known in her life but that was part of her past, a past that she would never want to visit again. To see that another monster would actually lay eyes upon her and actually feel love for her, well, this was the first time in a long time that it had happened.

She just didn't know what to say, what to do, "Well, if you want then it can be just you and me tonight, we can pretend that what happened never happened." She told him with a playful smile.

Randall couldn't believe how she was acting, "You expect me to just forget what I just saw just now? Sorry but that's not going to happen any time soon."

Candi wasn't sure of what to do until she had an idea, she shook herself as she morphed into the blonde haired girl that Lillian had described. Randall was bewildered by what had just happened, "You…you just…you just changed into a human! But how?"

She giggled, "Some monsters have special talents, you can go invisible and I can change my appearance, pretty cool huh? Some monsters seem to get a kick out of me looking like this while we play!"

She wrapped her arms around him as she leaned in to kiss him but he quickly grabbed her and held her back. "Look...this is just too weird!"

Candi looked at him strange, "Oh, I get it, brunettes are more your thing." She morphed again into a woman that looked like she came out of a magazine's swimsuit edition. Once again she could see that look of shock in his eyes, "No…then red head maybe?" This time she morphed into a woman dressed in a thin night robe and pulled out of his grip as she embraced him. Randall didn't know what was more shocking, the fact that she was a tramp or the fact that she had made herself look like a human.

"Please Randall, could you play with me? I get so lonely and only someone like you can ease my pain."

He looked down into her eyes and saw them flash back to their original color in the moon light, "Wait, you're the girl that she was talking about."

"Hmm?"

"Lillian saw a girl at her school whose eyes did…that…" but he couldn't finish.

Candi laughed, "Yeah, well, I like playing at Brendan's school, it's so much fun. Humans are fun to play with too." Randall just stared at her as he tried to process all of this. She could see his thoughts, "How about we forget about all of this and just play." When she didn't get a response she morphed back to normal again as she then pulled his face towards her and kissed him. He felt frozen as he felt her tongue enter his mouth but after a few seconds, he pushed her away from him, she didn't understand, "What's wrong now!"

"Look, if all you're going to do is just find me pleasurable when you feel like it then I don't want anything to do with you!"

"What? I don't understand!" she yelled at him.

"Then understand this, I thought I liked you but I guess I was wrong! Just leave me alone!"

She was silent for what seemed like forever, "You're dumping me?"

He could see a hurt expression upon her face but whether what he was seeing was genuine or not, he personally didn't feel like finding out, "Yes, I'm dumping you!"

Candi's eyes went blank, it was almost as if she had never heard those kind of words before as she then ran from him and disappeared into the night. She morphed into her wolf form as she ran down the street and passed Lillian on the way. Lillian stopped when she saw the wolf run past her and knew that something bad had happened. She made it to the alley where she saw the wolf come from. She climbed up the fire escape of the building and made it up to the roof as she saw Randall then curled up on the floor. She walked over to him slowly and sat next to him, he had only one tear upon his face. He saw her and immediately rested his head in her lap. "You were right." He told her.

Lillian gently rubbed his fronds as she sighed, "She is the girl, right?"

Randall nodded his head in agreement, "Also, you were right about her messing around…looks like she was messing with me too."

"I'm sorry Randall."

"It's not your fault, Lillian. You don't have to apologize, I should have known better."

He then rubbed his face against hers, he was grateful for her friendship, he really didn't know what he would do if he didn't have someone like her. Then he thought back to his life before banishment, he thought back to his rivals Sullivan and Mike, thought back to how much he was jealous of them. If things were different then, would it have been possible that he could have found a friendship within them? Maybe better yet, if he did have someone like Lillian, someone to keep him grounded, someone who would be there for all the joys as well as the tears, would he be out here living the life of a banished monster? Deep down, he really didn't know but despite what had happened to him and the anger he once held, if he had a choice to give up what he had now, well, there was a good chance that he wouldn't. Lillian gave him a small hug, "Maybe we better get home." "Yeah, we should." With that said, he allowed her to climb his back as he took off towards her house.

Candi was crying her eyes out while all Brendan did was lean against the wall of her room. Her home resided within the abandoned coliseum within the grounds of the old amusement park near the docks of West Port. Back in its glory days, the place would have all kinds of rides and such while a local circus would perform inside. That was a long time ago before the original ringmaster died and without leaving a will, all of his employees were left without a job and the animals had to be sold off. Her room was one of the dressing rooms that the acrobats used. On the walls were magazine clippings of beautiful human women. It was almost like a strange form of wall paper if you will. She cried as Brendan just watched her in her pitiful position, "What is the big deal? You never get sappy when it comes to these losers anyway!"

Candi looked at him with a hurt expression, "He dumped me! No one has ever dumped me before!"

"You weren't dating the jerk so technically he didn't dump you…"

She looked hopeful, "He didn't?"

"No, more like he rejected you."

When Candi heard this, she cried even louder as she buried her face in her pillow. The teenage boy just sighed, "Why the hell do you give a rat's ass about him anyway?"

She stopped crying enough to talk, "Because he's cute and charming and so hot and…well…I think that I love him."

Brendan just stared at her, "You have got to be kidding me! You barely met him and you say that you're in love with him?"

"Well, yeah", she started to explain, "I know it like sounds so weird but I just know, it's like, love at first sight."

He couldn't believe what she was saying, "Sheesh, you're worse than that damn skunk in those cartoons!"

Candi then stopped for a second, "What? You mean the little skunky who's always chasing the cat? Oh my gosh, Brendan, you just gave me a wonderful idea!"

"I did? What idea did I give you?" he asked hesitantly.

"I know how I can make him love me, all I have to do is follow him around and stuff, eventually he's bound to fall madly in love with me!"

"You do know that this plan doesn't work for the damn skunk so what makes you think that it will work for you?"

"Because I'm like the most popular and hottest girl in West Port, once he realizes this then he will love me, I just know it!" Candi became so excited as she hugged the pillow to her chest. The teenager could only sigh as he shook his head, "Shoot me, dear God, somebody please shoot me now."


	7. Chapter 7

Quote from Shinedown's "Breaking Inside", Mike, Sulley, and Fungus along with the basic MI stuff are property of Disney/Pixar, my characters and stuff are still property of mine, if you like what you read, please review. For those who have read the past chapters, this particular chapter takes the focus away from our city of West Port to the city of Monstropolis and focues on other characters who shall play a role in this tale.

Chapter Seven

_I caught a chill and it's still frozen on my skin, I think about why I'm alone, by myself, no one else to explain. How far do I go? No one knows, if the end is so much better, why don't we just live forever?_

_-Shinedown_

He stared at the large stack of paperwork in front of him, not sure of where or when it would end but regardless, it was his to finish either way. His door read "James P. Sullivan" but he insisted that most just call him Sully although there were some monsters who insisted on using the terms "mister" to call him now. He was looking over documents that related to the usual workings within Monsters Incorporated although his mind wasn't there. His mind, in fact, was thinking about something else entirely although it still related to the factory. His vision went slightly blurry as he tried to rub his eyes, trying to get rid of the feeling of sleep and fatigue that was plaguing him right now. Looking towards the clock, he noticed the time, it was almost eleven or so at night, honestly very late for him to be doing this kind of work. He put his pen down and had decided, "That's it, I'll come in early tomorrow and finish this in the morning."

As he locked up his office, he noticed that one of the CDA agents was doing late night rounds as well as he simply walked down the corridors of the hallway past his office.

"Hello Mr. Sullivan." He greeted him.

Sully who didn't want to come off as rude, responded back, "Hey Agent…um…I'm sorry, I forgot your name again."

"Number One Thirty Three, sir", he explained, "Finished for the night?"

"Yeah, more or less, so are you on graveyard shift again or do you need-."

"No, I'm fine, Number One asked me to make sure that you would be fine as you stayed a little late tonight sir, no worries, I can lock up after I leave."

The big monster shrugged, "Alright then, good night."

"Good night, Mr. Sullivan." And with that, the agent returned to his shift.

As Sully locked up the front, he then began the stroll back to the apartments that him and his best friend called home, he would have used the car but Mike had a date planned with Celia after work and needed the wheels to take her out so Sully, being the good friend that he was, let his buddy have the car for the evening. He didn't mind, besides, walking allowed him to clear his mind and think actually.

It had been about four years since Monsters Incorporated had converted to laugh energy, four years of ups and downs for the company but mostly they were doing well. The number of dead doors had cut down drastically although not completely. These kind of thoughts wasn't what bothered Sully, it was the recent things that were bothering him. It was during the past month or so that bothered him, Sully was used to the CDA being around the factory from time to time especially with what had happened four years ago but now for whatever strange reason, they chose to actually scout out the factory on a daily basis. The large monster wasn't sure but something told him that maybe, just maybe, something was up but when he tried to ask any of the agents or even talk to Roz herself, the answer was always the same. It was either "Everything's fine" or "Don't worry about it, Mr. Sullivan". He couldn't help but feel that if anything was going on in the factory, he as the current CEO had a right to know, didn't he?

Sully hadn't noticed that he had finally made it to the apartments, he was lost in his thoughts so much that he didn't realize just how quick the walk went. Once inside, he set down his briefcase as he pulled out what appeared to be more paperwork, god, the stuff just seemed to follow him everywhere. He was supposed to be looking over the past files of the shredded doors, filing out the paperwork to continue the process which would lead to the termination of what information they had on the kids of these particular closet doors. As he sat himself down in a large recliner, obviously with new fabric on it as compared to what it used to have, he glanced over at a framed picture of what looked to be a child's drawing. It was what appeared to be a rendition of a little girl in a pink dress with him, the name signed on there a little messy read "Mary". Almost every time he looked at this picture, he wanted to cry and did actually, sometimes.

Mary or Boo as he had called her was a little girl that four years ago had ended up within the monster world and caused quite a pandemonium during her stay here. After they returned her back home, Sully wasn't allowed to visit her and her closet door was shredded. A little time later, Mike had decided to give Sully a gift and it was her door, rebuilt which allowed him to visit her once again. That was some happy times but when she got around the age of four, it became clear to Sully that she was getting closer to a schooling age and maybe it was best to stop visiting her. It was hard but eventually, Sully had said goodbye to her for the last time. That was nearly two or so years ago, she probably didn't remember him anymore or the fact that she would call him Kitty.

Come on Sully, you need to get back to the task at hand, he thought. He looked back at the paperwork, filing it out as it was part of the process to terminate old files that were no longer of any importance, as far as Sully knew, this paperwork was sent to the CDA to be shredded, for whatever reason this was something that they preferred to handle themselves. Sully never quite understood why, they had a trash compactor and it didn't take a genius to shred paper but whatever, it was part of the procedures when it came to dead doors for the factory. Actually, it was a new procedure that had also started about four years ago, some kind of precaution possibly considering with what happened with Waternoose. Sully looked at the papers until he came across one of a little girl, she was blonde and was about what, ten maybe? She was a cute kid but Sully couldn't help but smile, she had a warm smile that reminded him of Boo, when he looked down at her reason for her door being shredded, all it said was "deceased". That's right, her door had to be shredded because one of the amusers found out that she had died, it was a little sad and at such a young age too. He looked down at where she used to live, in a town called West Port located in America. He signed for her paperwork to be terminated and then moved onto the next one. The next kid was just some little boy, maybe around her age, maybe younger, also having the same reason for termination, "deceased". Sully looked at the location, West Port.

"Huh, the same town, that's a coincidence." He stated as he signed his name and moved on to the next one.

Sully then signed another one, this time a little Hispanic girl, about age seven and once again, the same town, West Port.

"What", Sully then had some suspicion, he then skimmed through the next four sheets of paper, they all said the same thing, deceased and from West Port, "Wait, these kids are all from the same town?" He didn't like this, something just didn't feel right.

Mike finally arrived home, even though it was late, something told him that Sully would already be asleep but he was surprised to see the light to their apartment was still on, "Well that's weird."

He let himself in, deciding to boast a little, "Guess who had a wonderful time buddy?"

Mike noticed that Sully was busy on their laptop, the same one that he had begged Sully to buy and eventually lost interest in, "Hello? Didn't you hear what I just said?"

"Huh? Oh, hey Mike. When did you get home?" Sully asked.

The one eyed monster gave him a face, "Oh, I don't know, how about just now!" Mike then saw the small bit of paperwork on the desk, "Oh, working late again, you know, you really need to stop bringing your work home with you."

The large monster just rolled his eyes, "Sure thing MOM, I'll try to remember that."

"Ha, ha, very funny, why don't you leave the comedy to me, huh", then Mike came over to see what was on the screen, "So, any reason why you're looking at a human news website of some weirdo town called West Port which I personally think is a pretty ridiculous name. I mean, why do humans name their towns after weird things, is there like a port to the west of this place…seriously, what are you doing?"

Sully sighed, "You're really going to bug me about this, aren't you butterball. I got another stack of kids info to be shredded but I couldn't help but notice something…all of these kids are ones whose doors had to be shredded because they died and also, they are all from this town."

Mike, though not too interested, did find that to be strange, "Hmm, sounds like they have a kid killer on the loose there. Not that it isn't important after all less kids means less laugh energy but why would this be our problem?"

Sully showed him the news report, "According to their human authorities, all of these kids were brutally murdered and some of the evidence they found seems to make them believe that maybe this murderer has some kind of pet but listen to the descriptions here, found torn apart, limbs missing, bones crushed, a pretty sick son of a bitch if you ask me."

Mike nodded but asked once again, "Then may I ask exactly how this is our problem?"

Sully closed the laptop, "It's just that, during the past month, the CDA has been hanging around the factory a lot and then these murders that were going on in this town for what appears to be quite awhile…I don't know…somehow the one behind it doesn't sound like a human…I'm thinking that maybe it's a monster…a banished monster."

Mike shrugged, "Well if it is then it's not our problem, he's in the human world so he's their problem now."

The little monster went to watch some television. Sully got in front of him, "Mike, I'm sorry but it does become our problem…what if when this monster is captured that he tries to tell the humans all about Monstropolis, about MI and then what? What if the humans find a way here to our world and it turns into the incident with Boo but ten times worse? Even more, if the CDA knew or even suspected then why didn't they say anything? I'm CEO of this company Mike and for pete sakes, I have the right to know, don't I?"

"So then what are you suggesting, Sully?"

"I'm suggesting that we do some investigation on our own and find out who it is and try to stop them!"

Mike just stared, "That is the craziest idea you have ever had, pure crazy! Besides, the human world is massive, exactly how are we going to find this monster?"

"Mike, this is all happening in one town, all we need to do is use one of our active doors from there and just try to find out what we can."

"That…is…INSANE!" Mike yelled at him.

"Well, maybe", Sully told him, "But if we're going to do this then we'll need to do it after the agents leave for the night…so, do you have any laugh assignments in West Port?"

"No…at least…I don't think so, although, I think Fungus might have one there but I'm not sure, you'd have to ask him."

Sully thought about this, "Fungus huh? Randall's old assistant but if we ask him then we'll have to involve him in this…not sure if we want to do that."

Then that name came to mind, Mike couldn't help but exclaim, "Randall! How much you want to bet that he's behind this! After all, we sent him there to the human world, right? It could be him!"

"Whoa, wait a minute, we have no idea exactly where we sent him, remember? Besides, I don't take Randall to be the type to kill a kid…it doesn't seem like him."

"How do we know that he didn't?" Mike questioned.

"How do we know that he did?" Sully shot back.

The two glared at each other for a few seconds until Sully finally stood up, "It could be any monster, you know, besides you're mainly saying that because you really don't like him not that he was my favorite either but hey, I tried to be civil to him…of course, I wouldn't be surprised if he's totally pissed about how we banished him…after all, we technically weren't the CDA…"

Mike couldn't believe this, "You're still thinking about that? Sully, seriously, when are you going to let that go! It's in the past so let's move on, shall we?"

He looked towards the clock, "Okay, well I'm heading to bed and I think you should do the same, you big furball."

"I'll get to sleep in a bit, good night."

Mike only waved as he took off to his room and closed the door, he knew that Mike was right about what they did to Randall four years ago but once the work really piled on him, his mind did some thinking from time to time. He pulled from the book shelf a photo album, it was pictures from the company and such, Sully's mother had bought it for them when they had first started working at MI. It had the usual photos, pictures of holiday parties, birthdays, pictures of employees around the factory, pictures of those still working there and those who no longer did. Then there was also news paper clippings of all the good times around MI and all the bad…he looked at the newspaper of what happened the day that Waternoose was arrested. It read, "CEO Henry J. Waternoose part of scream extractor conspiracy was arrested when found confessing to what appeared to be going on behind closed doors for the past two years, his assistants Randall Boggs and Fungus were also detained and held for questioning."

Sully just sighed, he knew that was a big fat lie, after Roz and them found out about how Sully and Mike had banished Randall, they went through loads of questioning, hours of questioning actually. She finally decided that she would take the matter and handle it herself which led to this lie, Fungus was also questioned as well and told everything he knew in relation to the whole thing, after his confession he was let off but it wasn't entirely a picnic for the three of them. For the next year after that and after Sully started his job as CEO which the board of directors felt that he would have been a good choice for the sake of appearances, the three were monitored constantly, daily even, after that one year the CDA backed off and stuck to the usual drop bys every now and again. Sully tried to shake these memories from his mind, he had to focus on getting to work early tomorrow and also, ask Fungus to see if maybe he could help him with this little investigation, although he wasn't sure if he would want any involvement in it though.

The alarm went off around six forty five, an early time for any monster but for Sully, it was slowly becoming part of the norm. Around seven fifteen or so, he was up, prepared, and more or less ready for the day. He took the basic early walk towards the factory and let himself in and walking the way towards his office. Picking up where he last left off from last night, Sully was able to more or less finish his stack of paperwork around eight or so, the time that the factory was officially up and running. After trying to keep himself from yawning, he decided that some coffee would definitely help his situation. He grabbed himself a cup and sure enough, he saw Fungus pass him by with a few folders in order to start off his rounds, Sully was about to call to him but then Mike came onto the floor.

"Hey Sully, tons of work again?"

"Mike, you already know the answer to this question." Sully explained.

The one eyed monster sighed, "I know, I just figured since you had left way before I did, that's all...so, have you asked Fungus yet?"

"Not yet, I was about to."

"Hmm, about to? You want me to ask since you aren't too good-."

"I can handle it, don't worry about it, you just worry about getting your rounds done."

Mike shrugged, "Whatever you say, pal."

Sully watched as Mike took off towards his station but then his attention turned on Fungus, he needed to find the best way and time to ask him as far as concerning his assignments. Then Sully remembered that sometimes Fungus would eat lunch alone in a particular corner of the cafeteria, that could be the best moment.

A couple of hours later, it was lunch time and sure enough, Fungus sat alone with just his laptop in the cafeteria. Sully took a deep breath as he made his way over towards the little circular table. "Hey Fungus, mind if I take a seat?"

The small monster seemed unsure but after a few seconds, "Sure thing Sully."

The large monster breathed an inner sigh, that was just the first hurdle, the next would be the actual question and when to ask. After a few minutes, Sully decided to at least say something, "So…what are you doing?"

"Just some surfing really, I'm trying to get a few ideas for some of my assignments so that my jokes stay fresh."

"Oh, that's good, that's good", he told Fungus, "You know, I was doing some work this morning and came across something about a human town called West Port."

"West Port?" Fungus repeated.

"Yeah, got any rounds there?"

Fungus adjusted his safety helmet, "I mainly have one there, a kid about thirteen but he's mainly what I use to practice a bit, he's actually known for being a bit of a goof himself at his school." And with that said, Fungus turned back to the screen.

"Oh, a regular class clown."

"Yeah, you could say that." Fungus explained.

Sully felt some relief, Fungus did have one laugh assignment in this town but there was still the thing of asking him to help with this little undercover work that he had planned. Sully took a sip from his soda before he continued, "You think that you could maybe let Mike use the cardkey to this kid's door?"

Now the three-eyed monster was confused, "What for Sully?"

Sully was about to speak but then he saw two of the agents, Number twenty five and one thirty three come into the cafeteria, he needed to be careful, "Mike just needs to practice a little on the side, that's all."

Fungus noticed Sully watching the agents and realized what was going on, "Sorry Sully but I can't tonight, I was going to work a little on a website I've created…although it would be nice if I had a second opinion about it, would you and Mike mind if you looked it over?"

It took Sully a few seconds to realize that Fungus could tell that whatever he wanted to talk about couldn't be said here, "No problem, in fact, you could come over to our place and we could have a look at it."

"Great." And with that said, Fungus closed his laptop and headed out of the cafeteria.

After he left, Mike made his way over to the table, "So, what did he say", he whispered.

"I didn't ask him so to speak but he's coming over to our place tonight, I figure that I can ask him then."

Mike shrugged, "Better there than here."

It was about nine thirty or so when Fungus came over and luckily for Sulley, finishing that large stack of paperwork did help him out, by doing that it actually allowed him to leave work on time for once. Fungus seemed a little nervous but cleared his throat to speak, "I'm guessing that you guys must have some important reason for wanting to borrow the card key? Call me skeptical but Mike practicing isn't the reason, is it?"

"Eh, you could say that." Mike told him.

There was at least a brief moment of silence until Sulley decided to explain, "Listen Fungus, I'm afraid that something suspicious is going on and since it looks like the CDA doesn't really want me knowing about it then I decided to investigate a bit on my own…I don't want to get you involved in all of it, I figure that if someone's going to get in trouble for snooping then it should be me."

"But that's the thing, what is this suspicious stuff that's going on?"

"We suspect that a banished monster is killing kids", but then Mike saw Sulley glare at him, arms crossed, "What…oh, you weren't going to say, were you?"

"No I was not but thank you, Mr. blabbermouth!"

Fungus looked away from them for a second, "Let me guess…you think it could be Randall."

The room got quiet again, while Fungus and Randall never got along that well, it didn't change the fact that Fungus did enjoy Randall's company even just a little. Mike was about to open his mouth but Sulley shot him a look that was basically saying 'not a word'. Fungus remembered how it was like working with Randall, the guy did have quite a temper but then again, the fact that he was basically a tech geek probably didn't help either. While Fungus didn't show it as much as Randall, he did have some jealousy towards Mike and Sulley as well. He remembered the one time that Randall had gotten scare leader on the board, how a small few of the other employees immediately flocked to him, Fungus felt quite relieved but when Sulley and Mike ended up with a slumber party which then led to them regaining their title, then naturally the "fans" flocked to the one on top. Fungus did hold some jealousy and couldn't help but be disgusted with those "fans", after all, they may act like your friends when you're on the top but once you lose that ranking then it was on to the next monster…typical. Although, sadly after Randall's banishment this did leave Fungus all to his lonesome. The monster really didn't have any other friends actually but for once, he was able to finally get to know Sulley and Mike. While Mike was a little egotistical, he wasn't half bad and Sulley, well, he really was a friend that would be worth it for anyone to make. Too bad Randall never realized that, Fungus thought but then tried to focus on what was going on now. He scratched his head for a bit, "I guess so but…wouldn't it be easier if you guys did let me help you out, maybe just a little?"

"Fungus, you might want to think about that? Remember what happened after the incident with Waternoose four years ago? The three of us were on the CDA's check list and that went on for a full year…if I somehow let it slip that I'm doing this, that might happen again or even worse, are you sure you want to risk your job or more importantly your life?" Sulley asked him.

"Well…when you put it that way then it does sound like a bad idea but Sulley, it's kind of you and Wasoski's fault that he's in the human world possibly doing these things in the first place…and as strange as it sounds, I do feel a little responsible for that too…I was his scaring assistant…he shouldn't have been the only one sent to the human world, you know."

"If you honestly feel that way…then fine, I guess there's no way of changing your mind then." Sulley told him with a slight bit of tension in his voice.

Mike on the other hand tried to sound enthusiastic, "Then it's settled, we'll figure out this mess and try to fix it!" So, that was that, the three had made a pact from that night in that no matter what it took, they would try to figure out who was behind the killings and for the sake of the monster world, try to stop them…whether the monster was Randall or not.


	8. Chapter 8

To those who have been reading my story or even have read up to it's current point, my apologies for not updating, I've been taking some time off and came across my story upon my labtop, figured that for those who have been waiting, you're getting an update. This particular chapter focuses more on two characters: we get to see into a day at school for Lillian and we get a bit of a look and backstory for Butch. Randall and MI related are owned by Pixar, my characters belong to me, quote from a song by Shinedown.

Chapter VIII

_I just saw Hayley's Comet, she waved, said "Why you always running in place? Even the man in the moon disappeared somewhere in the stratosphere."_

_-Shinedown_

It had been about a week…maybe two since he had last seen Candi, nearly two weeks since she had broken his heart and he had then shot her down in return. Well, was it two weeks, he honestly couldn't remember nor did he care for the time being. Randall since then had some trouble sleeping from night to night, feeling just a little depressed but of course, this he tried to hide from Lillian even though the fact is that he couldn't. She by now knew at the very least when something was bothering him, one of the things that gave him away was if he seemed more agitated than usual. While Randall would refrain as best as he could from unleashing his temper on her, it couldn't be helped all the time. He every once in awhile would then kind of bite off her head and she would return the rudeness right back.

Lillian would try to tell herself that he didn't mean it but that he was still mad about what happened with the girl Candi and was simply taking his anger out on her…but even though she understood that he was hurting, the teenage part of her brain couldn't help but think one thought. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't, why is it that even though she had nothing to do with what happened or even this girl period that yet she would have to feel the burn of his temper. If he was honestly that mad about this female monster then why not take his frustration out on her; that would only be fair after all. Lillian then heard the lunch bell ring, she didn't even realize that she was so lost in her thoughts that she had barely eaten at least half of her lunch. Packing what she didn't finish in her backpack, she picked up her things and went to the one class she hated the most, gym.

It was a class that she hated for a number of reasons, first reason was that students were expected to be dressed for the class. It was the one class where Lillian couldn't wear her hoodie at all unless they were doing stuff outside and it was freezing but otherwise than that, her gym teacher had made it clear that hoodies were not allowed. Second reason, both her and her mortal enemy, Heather, shared this class and considering that Heather was Ms. Pretty and Popular in the seventh grade, she never passed up a chance to let the other girls know it. Final reason, due to Heather being popular and Lillian being…well, not, Heather took every opportunity in this class to make Lillian miserable. If they played any contact sport, Heather made sure that if there was going to be pain dished out, it would be dished out on Lillian. The number of times that Lillian had been "accidentally" beamed in dodge ball was ridiculous, even if the two were on the same team! Of course, under normal circumstances, Lillian probably wouldn't be such a target but since it became obvious to Heather about her crush on Mark, that was when things started getting ugly in the class.

After running their beginning class laps, Mr. Pena blew his whistle and called the students into a circle.

"Alright, we're playing dodge ball in which we will divide up into two teams…so who's going to be our team leaders…any takers?"

The class seemed silent but suddenly Heather enthusiastically raised her hand, "I'll be one of the team leaders, Mr. Pena!"

"That's one so who's going to be our other team leader?"

There wasn't too much of a response but than suddenly, Heather decided to help the process along, "Mr. Pena, I think our other team leader should so be Lillian, she's never got to be one so far this year and I think she would so love it."

Lillian couldn't believe this as she looked over at Heather who gave her a dirty little smirk.

"Uh, actually, I think maybe somebody else should be team leader besides-."

"Oh don't be silly Lillian, it'll be fun." Heather interrupted.

Mr. Pena nodded his head, "Alright, so everyone else, choose your side, I'm giving you five minutes and then we start."

Naturally all the popular kids, the cheerleaders and jocks, chose to be on Heather's team which left the slackers and losers of their class on Lillian's team which truly gave her a huge strength disadvantage. Heather's team got first serve and as expected, the strongest guy on her team had the ball and took the first throw. The next forty five minutes of the class was nothing more but living hell for Lillian and her team. While she didn't get hit so many times, it didn't take long for Heather to eventually cut down her team's numbers and soon began targeting on her. Lillian tried to dodge as best as she could but suddenly when she turned her head to face forward then it happened, all she could see was the big large rubber ball coming in her direction and without enough time to react, she was hit but then her vision blurred and went black.

The first thing she felt was cold, something cold on her face which due to how chilling it was, she pushed it off out of a simple reaction. She opened her eyes as she stared at the space around her, she was lying on a small mattress while her eyes were blinded by the white walls that surrounded her. Then she noticed the typical classroom like posters on the wall with the typical stuff like "Winners don't do drugs" and such. It didn't take her long to realize that she was in the nurse's office. Then the nurse came in when she saw that she was awake and slowly sitting up, "Oh good, you woke up."

Lillian then felt her left eye, it was sore and so was her head, "Man, what happened?"

"You were in your gym class, you got hit in the face with a dodge ball and you kind of passed out."

Lillian then panicked for a minute, "Wait, what time is it and where's my stuff?"

"Your stuff is at my desk and it's about three forty five."

Three forty five? That meant that she was out for a few hours, school had already let out for the day and to top it off, she had missed her last two classes as well. It almost seemed like the nurse could read her mind as she gave her a slight smile, "Don't worry, I had told your other two teachers, they gave me your homework."

"Thanks." Lillian told her as she got off the mattress slowly but surely, although she almost fell over again.

"Uh, maybe I should call your mother to come and get you?"

"No, no, I'm fine, just need to walk around a bit, I'll get dressed and get going, okay?"

The nurse gave her a stern look, "Well alright but may I suggest that when you get home, you go straight to bed, okay?"

Lillian gave her a nod as she slowly got dressed, feeling much better with her hoodie back on as opposed to her gym clothes and picked up her backpack, taking her leave. The walk back home took a little longer than usual due to Lillian feeling a little tired from the walk alone, her body felt like she was taking so much energy just to move let alone be up. Then she started to pass by Randall's place, normally she would stop and visit him but decided against it this time, her head was in pain enough without needing to deal with whatever bad mood he was in due to what had happened.

She had continued past the house and towards her own, passing by a stray dog who stopped as he tilted his head to the side, almost as if he was wondering if whom had passed him was someone he knew. The dog looked back, turned out that the large dog was the one and only Butch. He recognized the girl and her slow pace, curious as to why she was walking so slowly and so to try and satisfy that curiosity, he then changed direction and followed her.

It took her a little while to realize that she was being followed, Lillian only looked back a bit as she then saw the dog, it looked like a Doberman with a large scar across his left eye, probably was blind through that eye as well. Lillian decided to ignore him and just pretend he wasn't there, hoping then that the stray would probably get bored of following her and just leave. She continued walking but only looked back every once in awhile and to her annoyance, the dog still continued to follow her and even continued so when she had made it to her street. Then she had made it to her house but as she walked towards the porch, she looked back and there he was, he had followed her all the way home.

Lillian only looked at him but then felt a little sad, he looked like a pretty nice dog, probably was somebody's pet at one time, then she pulled out the half eaten sandwich from her pack. Butch wasn't sure what she was doing but he kept on guard but then she whistled to him, holding out the sandwich but he refused to budge, knowing well enough that her intentions could possibly not be what they seemed. She could tell that the dog wasn't moving as she sighed, laid down the sandwich on the porch and went inside. Butch looked at it, smelled like meat, chicken perhaps? Taking the food as a simple gift, he cautiously approached the meal, picked it up and ran from the yard. Lillian watched as the dog took off, she smiled when she let go of the curtain, "Probably a nice change from what you usually have."

Butch had ran to another street as he ate up the sandwich, it was chicken and it was good, there was no way he was going back to the pack with this. Figuring that the girl meant it to be his, he saw no harm in eating it then and there. After having his fill, he then whined a little, the girl reminded him so much of the boy he used to have, his owner back when he was a puppy…at least before Scourge came into his life anyway.

Butch hadn't always been a stray or even a mutt controlled by Scourge at the very least, his life before all this back when he was a pup was very different. His life with humans started out as a child's birthday present. Now normally, children lose interest of their pets after the first few weeks, but not his boy, his owner was different…he loved Butch very much or Buddy actually as the boy had originally called him. Buddy was the name that the child gave him since the two were best buddies, of course that was how a child saw it naturally. They did everything together, they played, took baths, and even went to bed together, or they did until Butch started becoming more of a chewer which then led to his boy's parents deciding that it was best for him to stay outside. Butch wasn't very fond of being outside, neither was his boy but within time, the two became accustomed to it and moved on.

Life seemed so perfect to the young pup…until that fateful night when Scourge had come to the town that Butch used to know as home. He remembered it too well, it was late while the pup tried to sleep but the noises of the night were keeping him up but then he heard a strange deep growl come from the bushes near the edge of the yard. He remembered then seeing his ball suddenly roll out from under the plants, the little pup thought one thing which was to play and excitedly ran to get his ball but as soon as he reached it, he was grabbed by a humongous hand. Well, maybe hand wasn't the best term, claw was more appropriate actually. That was the last night he had ever seen his boy, after that all he knew was strict rules and order, all he knew after that was what Scourge had drilled into his skull.

Butch couldn't remember how long it had been since he felt nothing more but a simple pat on the head from an owner who truly did love him, someone whom he felt wouldn't reward him with one hand while punishing him with the other. It was one of the last times in his life when he wore a collar since during the final night they were there, before they moved to the next place, Scourge tore off his collar and left it on the ground…Buddy had died that night while Butch was left in his place. Butch then got up…those memories were in the past and that was that.

Deciding to follow the advice of the nurse, Lillian took the slow walk up to her room as she laid herself down upon her bed. Closing her eyes hurt a little but she didn't care, sleep would probably be best anyway. It only seemed like a few minutes until she thought that she heard what seemed like tapping at her window but she ignored it, thinking that she imagined it. Then the tapping got louder and more consistent as she then realized that clearly, it wasn't in her head. She took a quick glance at the clock, it was around nine thirteen or so…wait, she was asleep that long? Before she could answer her own question, she heard the tapping louder once more. Sitting up, she looked over towards the window and without thinking twice, she slowly got up and opened it then plopped back on her bed.

The window closed itself after a bit then Randall appeared, looking at Lillian with a bit of confusion, "Ouch, what happened to you? Got into a fight or something?"

For whatever strange reason, that question just seemed to bug Lillian just a little, "So you're actually concerned about me?"

Randall shrugged, "Well yeah, why wouldn't I be?"

"I don't know, you sure haven't seemed so concerned the past couple of weeks but yet, you show some concern now!"

Randall could sense the tension in her voice, "Uh, Lillian, I don't know what happened to you or how hard you got hit but I think you need to calm down."

She couldn't believe it, he was acting as if she had been the one in the bad mood for the past few weeks now.

"You want to know what happened, you want to know how I got this? I'll tell you how I freaking got this! Today in gym, we had to play dodge ball, out of all of the damn sports to play, it had to be that one. So we have to divide up into two teams and guess what? Aren't I the lucky one who gets picked as one of the leaders due to the wonderful and elegant Heather. Then we pick our team mates and naturally, I get all of the weak players since every jock wants to be on Heather's team so then not only am I a target for her fury but also, I'm outmatched easily! I try dodging as best as I can but of course, it can't be helped, I have to get beamed in the eye which apparently hit me hard enough that I blacked out! It took what seemed like forever to walk home and the headache that came with this little injury isn't helping! If you want to know why I didn't come over today, it's because I didn't feel like dealing with your damn little attitude that's about a girl no less! Now, if you have ever had to go through what I did today, then you can tell me to calm down but until then, I don't want to hear it!" she yelled at him as she stormed out of her room and downstairs.

The shock of hearing her now bite his head off was quite frightening but somehow, he felt that maybe, he needed that. He walked down the stairs slowly as he saw Lillian curled up on her couch, judging from the sniffling noises, she had barely started crying. Now he had done it, Randall never wanted to hurt her out of all people when it came to his slight attitude.

He slowly approached her as he rested his head on her shoulder, "I'm sorry…about how I've been…I guess that handling heartbreak isn't as easy for me as I hoped, I've never felt the way I did for this girl, you know? Sometimes I forget that there are others who have their own problems and that you're dealing with some pretty tough stuff too."

She turned to meet his gaze, his apology was sincere and she knew that he was truly sorry. She rubbed the tears from her cheeks then she wrapped her arms around his neck, letting him know that she forgave him.

"If I start to act like a jerk again, just let me know, okay?"

She laughed a little, "Sure, I will."

"Good", he then looked at her eye again with concern, "Not sure what good it'll do now but maybe we should try some ice on that although you might have a shiner for quite awhile though."

She gave a slight nod, yeah, she probably should have got herself another ice pack once she got home…that probably explained the cold feeling on her face at the nurse's office, was probably an ice pack. Randall went shifting through the freezer until he finally found it, grabbing a kitchen towel from off the counter, he tossed the pack in Lillian's direction, it landed on the floor just right through her hands as she laughed, "You missed."

"No, I'm pretty sure I didn't, you just didn't catch it." Randall told her.

"Whatever" she shot back as she picked it up and put the pack to her eye, the cold felt much better considering her headache.

Butch was resting for a bit until he then heard the commotion from the other dogs, his ears perked up as he smelled the familiar scent which meant only one thing…the master was home. Scourge looked tired and would more than likely choose to retire for the night but when he passed by Butch, his nose then caught a familiar scent…two scents actually.

He then turned towards the direction of such scents and unfortunately, it lead to the lowly Doberman. Butch's eye darted around as he froze, Scourge then took a deep whiff right in front of him.

"Huh, chicken. Been eating rather well tonight?"

Butch whimpered out a reply which simply answered yes to Scourge's question…so to speak.

"So, where did you get the meal?"

Then the uneasiness could be felt, fear, tension surrounding the small canine as his master simply waited for a reply. After a good five minutes, Scourge sighed since it became obvious that he wasn't going to receive one, slowly he walked behind the dog and suddenly, gave him a good kick in the tail. Butch yelped as he tried to sit but the feeling of Scourge's clawed feet didn't help and the poor Doberman only cowered instead.

Scourge then glared at him and only said one thing, "Never come in here with the scent of human on you again, because if you do, it better be that you had freaking killed one, not getting handed scraps like some patethic PET!"

The other dogs heard his yells and some even hid behind some of their fellow pack mates. Suddenly exhausted from his fit of rage, Scourge left them as he retired into the darkness of his chambers. Butch, realizing his mistake, gave himself a mental kick as well but when he noticed his pack seeing the alpha dog in his lowly state, he immediately stood tall as he gave a loud bark, sending the dogs running from the scene. Being humiliated by his master was bad but humiliated in front of the whole pack, sometimes it was just too much.


	9. Chapter 9

For this chapter, we're not only focusing a little more on Brendan and Candi but also we get to see just how things are progressing with the trio of Sulley, Mike, and Fungus in the monster world. All MI characters owned by Pixar, my characters belong to me, quote from the song "What a Shame" by Shinedown. The small lyrics later on in the chapter are from a song by Kesha.

Chapter VIIII

_I watched it all up close, I knew him more than most, I saw a side of him he never showed, Full of sympathy for a world that wouldn't let him be, That's the man he was, Have you heard enough?_

_-Shinedown_

Gathering all the pieces of this strange monster mystery was difficult but either way, it was time consuming and for Sulley, sometimes difficult to focus on with all the work that he still had to deal with…it was probably a good thing that he wasn't working alone and had some help from Mike and Fungus…well mostly Fungus actually. After all, he was lucky enough to at least have one laughing assignment in West Port while Mike never got any.

After investigating for a few weeks now, they weren't able to pick up much although Sully felt it was best if now, they actually talked to someone who lived in the town. Then that's where Kevin came in…who is Kevin you ask? That's an easy one, Kevin is the one laughing assignment that Fungus has in West Port along with being the town's class clown. In fact, Kevin would actually give Fungus pointers on jokes and funny stuff and believe it or not, Fungus would take what the kid had to say into consideration because let's face the facts here, Fungus was no comedian. If he did anything funny, it was never intentional and always accidental in some form or another but while funny was hard for Fungus, it seemed to come off easy for Kevin, much to the dismay of his parents.

Tonight though, Fungus decided to try and confront Kevin on a more professional note, it was rather late but at least the last few CDA agents had finally gone home. Fungus swiped the card key as the conveyor belt pulled up Kevin's door, a basic brown door, nothing too special. Then with a push of a button, the light turned on and taking a slow breath, Fungus opened the door and saw that apparently Kevin was in but seemed to be turning his room upside down.

The kid was rummaging through his drawers and was going to his closet but then he saw Fungus, "Man, you picked a bad time to go changing my closet up!"

"Really? Oh, terribly sorry….you looking for something?"

"Yeah", Kevin told him as he then went looking under his bed, "I'm looking for my flipping notes for my stupid science class! I've got a test tomorrow and if I fail it again, Dad's gonna ground me! I can't stay locked up inside ALL day, I'll lose it, I'll officially lose it!"

Fungus rolled his eyes, typical, he tried teaching Kevin organization skills but it did no good. Then he noticed something different in the room, "So where did your tv and games go?"

"Where do you think they went? My dad pulled them from my room when I failed the last stupid test, unfair man. I paid for them both with my freaking allowance, all that hard work gone down the drain, I mean, it was my money but he's all like 'My house, My rules' and all that stupid crap…still, it's my money so they were mine and you would think that possession is like what? Nine tenths of the law or something like that, if I was an adult, I'd sue his ass for stealing…but I can't, go figure!"

Fungus wasn't sure if he should help or not, after all, the room was now a mess which would make looking for the notes much harder.

"Well, why don't you just use the book to study?" Fungus suggested.

Then a thought actually processed in Kevin's mind as he slapped his palm to his face, "Damn it!"

"What?"

The kid sighed, "I know where the damn notes are, they're in my book…which is in my locker. Damn it!"

Kevin landed on his bed as he contemplated the future grounding that he was going to receive, "Why did you leave them in your book", Fungus asked.

"I don't know, made sense in a way, Science book, Science notes!"

Then Kevin just thought of something, "So…need more pointers or what, Fungus man?"

"Actually, I want to ask you something about this interesting little town you live in."

"Interesting? Please, West Port should have been called Snoozeville because that's all it is, just plain boring, the only interesting stuff is the ghost of the mansion and his family tree."

Fungus found that strange, "A ghost?"

"Yeah, according to this town's history, they say that years ago was when the first of that guy's family moved here to what many knew as the small town of West Port, many generations of his family grew up and lived in that house, the only reason why it's vacant now is because that old man didn't have any kids so it just sits there pretty empty. Many of the adults say that at least now his spirit can rest and that there is no way that he's a ghost. They say that because I think that they know that kids go to the house."

Then he got really close to Fungus, "But you know what, I think that maybe his ghost exists in that house, living all by himself cause he has no idea that he's dead!"

"Kevin, I'm not sure if you're aware but ghosts are not real!"

"Well…you don't know that!" he shot back.

Fungus tried to move past this but curiously asked, "Even so, what does this house look like?"

Kevin pulled out his camera phone as he then showed Fungus a picture of an old house, "This house has the ghost inside of it. I've actually gone in the house and saw it…well maybe not actually seen it but I did experience some strange paranormal activity in that house."

Fungus looked at him a little funny, "It looks just like a house to me."

"Dude, I'm not lying here, when I went in, the piano played by itself and then, the ghost appeared, he was like this freaking huge, bright eyes and like flipping freaky! He even knows how to talk, he actually talked to me, asking if I was snooping around his place, I didn't answer him cause I bolted out of there! He does exist, there's been other kids who've seen him too and junk so it's no joke. The only person who goes in there now is that one weird girl."

"A girl", Fungus asked, "Who is this girl?" "Her name is Lillian but I've seen her go in once and she actually didn't come out till an hour later, she actually seemed fine too, I think that somehow she's talked to the ghost and maybe since she's so weird, she actually understands him so maybe that's why he doesn't kill her and stuff."

"So where does this supposed ghost come from?" Fungus asked him with a hint of sarcasm in there.

"Well, the guy who lived in that place died years ago and there were times that people said that some weird stuff would happen but nobody actually talked to him or heard him before until about…three years ago, I think…which is weird cause I figured that if a ghost has a certain style to their haunting, why change it after who knows how long?"

Well, that was pretty much it, sounded like nothing more but urban legends, "Well, I better leave you to your studying or at least what you can study." and with that, Fungus took his leave.

Once he put Kevin's door back then something about what he said was still on his mind, the incident of the ghost didn't seem to attract a lot of attention until about a few years ago, about three was what Kevin said…and it was four years ago was when the whole Waternoose incident occurred, four years ago that Randall had been banished. In fact, what Kevin said sounded interesting, about how this ghost could talk but was hard to see when it appeared…not being visible at first just like a real ghost…but ghosts weren't real, Fungus knew that. Then somehow, he couldn't help but wonder, could Randall be this ghost maybe? If so, then from what he could tell, the ghost only scared off children, there was no murder involved but then could it mean that the murderer and this ghost were two separate beings? This seemed entirely confusing but somehow a relief at the same time, Fungus wanted to believe that Randall had nothing to do with the murders if somehow, he was even in this town at all but clearly, more work would have to be done…and that may involve going to the human world. Wait, that was taking it too far, it was a crazy idea to even think! Yet…it was his first thought and maybe the best idea and approach, not the safest, but the best way to take…now all that left was to let Sully and Mike know…and to also find some way to tell them of what his idea was.

"_Blah…blah…blah, think you'll be getting this nah…nah…nah…not in the back of my car…ar…ar…if you keep talking this blah…blah…blah…blah…"_

Candi was nearly singing to her mp3 player as she sat at her desk during study hall…which she should have been studying but that wasn't her style. Nope, she mostly used the class for other more "important" things such as makeup touchups or even text messaging. Then suddenly, she saw her human girlfriends Carol and Alexa take up the seats in front and right next to her.

"Hey girls!" She greeted them as they all started giggling.

"Nice outfit! Did Brendan get it for you?" Carol asked.

"Oh yeah, he totally did", Candi told her, "He even bought me this in two other colors too." Carol and Alexa just sighed, "You are soooo lucky to have a boyfriend who treats you like a queen! I would give anything to have a guy like that", Alexa told her.

If only they knew, Candi thought, while she loved Brendan buying her whatever she wanted…it wasn't always a picnic with him. Then again, her life before she was banished wasn't so enjoyable either…but that didn't matter now, she was living pretty well more or less so her past wasn't important now. Then it was back to the present as she gave a sly smile to the girls, while she didn't mind their company, she loved showing off her little gifts to them. She purposefully brushed her hair back which allowed them a glimpse at the earrings she bought as well.

"Oh…my…God! Are those real diamonds?" Carol asked.

"Yep, of course, Brendan always buys the best for me!"

The girls really freaked out now as Candi just watched and took in the moment.

"So, think Brendan could get us something some time?" Alexa told her.

Carol immediately elbowed her, "Alexa, he's Candi's guy not ours!"

"So?"

"I'll ask him", Candi told them, "But if he says yes, we'll have to go shopping another time, I've got to do some stuff after school."

The two girls sighed with the little disappointment but at least there would be another time. Then the final bell rang, the students picked up their books as they all headed either for their lockers or straight home. She headed to her locker to dump off all the weight of her backpack, she left it here and only took it with her if she had homework which to her delight, she didn't. When she closed her locker, right next to her was Brendan who didn't look too happy…which wasn't surprising.

"Hi Brendan…is something wrong?"

"You mind explaining to me why you brag to the brats girls every time I take you shopping?"

"Cause it's fun!" She explained.

He just sighed, sure it was fun for her but then it meant that he would actually have to go shopping with all three of them, he found it annoying enough to go with just Candi but all three of the brats, he really didn't like the sound of that. When they stepped outside, Brendan grabbed her hand and pulled her down the sidewalk.

"Umm, where's the limo?"

He spoke without looking, "I decided to give the driver a break today, we could use the exercise…for once."

They continued the slow walk until then Brendan stopped, they were in front of the old house of the musician. Candi could sense something about this house…the current inhabitant wasn't human.

"So…why are we here?" She asked nervously.

Brendan didn't answer as he decided to take the first steps towards the porch and to the door. Peering inside, he couldn't see a thing…although considering the reason why he came, maybe it should have been expected.

"You coming or what?"

Candi quickly ran up to him as she waited for him to open the door, leading the two inside the strange house. Even more nervous, she decided to try again, "Why are we here, Brendan? You didn't tell me yet."

She watched him as he walked down the hallway and turned towards the room on his left. Not sure of what she should do, she decided to go ahead and just follow him. Inside the room was a piano in the middle while all around were old bookcases with millions of books and black marks upon the walls…millions of black marks as if someone was keeping track of something. Brendan only said one thing, "So…do you sense something?"

"That depends…what am I supposed to be sensing?"

"Anything really…like another monster perhaps?"

So that's why we're here, she thought, because they were looking for another monster to fight?

"Candi…well?"

"Um, I don't know."

"You're not even trying! I know that there's a monster here and I need you to try and sense where he is, do you feel his presence anywhere in this room?"

She closed her eyes for a minute as she concentrated and only spoke one word, "No."

Brendan just turned away from her as he looked at the piano, the top part of it was dusty but there was some signs that it wasn't all of the time…in fact, there were hand prints but they weren't human. He smirked as he then slapped his hand down on the middle of the instrument, it caused the dust to go flying in the air but nothing else happened. Candi immediately started to cough from the dust explosion, "What the *cough* are you doing?"

He finally had enough of this, if this monster did live here, he wasn't here at the moment, "You sure that you didn't sense anything?"

"I already told you that I didn't."

But then Candi saw Brendan get real close to her face, he stared at her eyes, not speaking a word, he finally gave in and motioned for her to follow.

"Let's go."

Candi started to follow as she looked around the room one last time and then followed Brendan out the door. After hearing the door slam, Randall reappeared as he slowly climbed down from the ceiling. He found it very strange that Brendan knew where he lived but even stranger, it seemed that Candi did sense him there yet she lied to her little boyfriend about it. While this was interesting, it still didn't change one little fact, Brendan seemed to suspect that he lived here and there was only one way he could have known or better yet, through one person.

"Weasel." Randall said out loud.

A small moving van slowly drove down the street as it pulled up in front of a old looming house, out on the country side area and closer to the woods of West Port. A young woman in her twenties backed it up inside of the garage door and pressed a button which then closed it. She cut the engine as she got off, stretching her legs after all of the stress of being on the road for some good hours. Walking around the backend of the truck, she opened up the sliding door, "We're finally here."

A clip clop noise like the hoofs of a horse could be heard as a monster stepped out and slowly found his footing, "So we have. I presume that you did get a house of a good location out here near this dear West Port?"

"Of course, it's a pretty good size and wasn't too bad on price either. We're out here near the woods, it's pretty empty, closest neighbors a good five miles away. Pretty much, nobody too close to bother us."

The monster nodded in reply, "Good, a little bit of solitude is always appreciated…tell me, what is the news on the child murders here?"

"You know as well as I do, killer still on the loose, little evidence makes people suspect that it's a person with an animal out here."

"The town's history."

"Urban legends involving the usual ghost stories although there is a large house that they say belonged to some older man for years until he died, a place like that seems to attract a lot of curious kids. Since our murderer seems to target children, a haunted house sounds like a pretty good cover."

"A perfect cover for any monster to indulge in such disgusting activities…although this is the place that Amethyst did say that we would find him, isn't it?"

"That's what she had told us before we had left. According to her, there is a monster within that town whom may be strong enough to stop the killer, the only thing for us is to find them. What I don't like is that she never told us what he or she looks like?"

The monster gave her a smile, "He is the correct word but appearances don't matter too much, she gave us his name and once we find him, working with him will be our best bet on stopping this tyrant."

The woman only gave a nod as she then brought up something else, "So, do you think that there may be a connection between the killer and your little friend from back home?"

"I've already asked you to stop referring to that selfish excuse for a gentleman as a friend, he's no friend of mine but considering the dark secrets that his family harbors, surely he would be no good to anyone as a friend regardless…it's very possible that he could have easily sent others here who, like me, he considered a threat…it's very possible that our killer is doing these acts as a form of rebellion against him but we don't know this for certain and only time will tell if that is the case or not."

The monster stared at the set of double doors which led into the main house, "Ah, you remembered."

"After the last place we were staying and having to deal with your nagging, how could I forget?"

She opened the doors as she led the way inside, the house was already decorated, furniture in place, basically the moving truck had come here long before they did. The monster, which was horse like in appearance, stared at an old family photograph of a woman whom he had known since she was a child. She was the mother of the human he was staying with now….gosh, wasn't it not too long ago when she would visit him in woods similar to these during the middle of the night? He tried to not get too emotional when those memories came back to him, that woman was one of the few good things about the human world and one of the reasons why he wasn't so angered for his banishment here.

"Stallion?"

He turned towards the woman as he noticed her worried expression, "I'm alright Celine, just thinking back, that's all."

She walked over to his side as she looked at the old photo, "You know, I miss her too. There's not a day that doesn't go by that I don't…but I'm sure she's watching us right now, her spirit is."

"Yes, well…now since we have arrived near this town of West Port, we may need to do some special work here in order to determine who the killer is, who this special monster is, and most importantly, where either one stays."

Celine plopped down into a dark red recliner, "How are we going to do this then, do you want me going around during the day, you searching at night?"

Stallion held his back to her until the suggestion processed within his mind, "That could be one option…although, this monster goes after children, an awkward target for some creatures so it might be possible that it resides near a school."

"Which limits us to…what, kinder all the way to high school?"

He stared at her since he sensed a slight bit of sarcasm in there but decided to not dwell on it. "For right now, we'll focus on the schools one by one until we can get some kind of clue or trace as to where he might dwell."

"Sounds like a plan."

It was barely past midnight as Randall had decided to pay a certain small monster a bit of a visit just before going to see Lillian. Still being cautious, his anger was starting to grow due to his suspicions in relation to the little surprise guests of Brendan and his "girlfriend" that had happened a few hours earlier. As he continued the fast paced trek towards the city dump, he hadn't noticed that a certain furry shadow was following him. Sure enough, it was none other than Candi who couldn't help but give a devilish smile. She watched him for a few minutes, thinking all kinds of thoughts but didn't stay put for long since she wanted to keep up with him. She then immediately halted since Randall also did the same thing, his fronds perked up as he slowly turned his head to see her right behind him. He glared at her as the silence seemed to build until he finally spoke up, "Well, look who's following me…nice to see you not in a costume."

Candi started to giggle when it soon occurred to her that it wasn't a joke or even meant to be one. Deciding to lighten the mood, she simply smiled back, "That depends…would you like to see me in costume…anything in particular?"

Randall shook his head, he couldn't believe that after the fact that he had shot her down, she apparently wasn't going to give up that easily.

"So…what are you doing?"

"I'm looking for someone to get some answers about your little visit unless you want to tell me?"

Candi looked at her feet as she played with her tail, "About that…I swear it wasn't my idea! Brendan for whatever reason wanted to go over there to your house, I tried to find out why but he never really explained, I didn't even know where we were going until we were right out in front of it! That's what happened, I honestly swear!"

Judging from her explanation, the only one with answers would be Weasel. It was clear that Candi didn't know and if she did, then she wasn't talking.

"So…you do know where I live but you didn't tell him?" Randall asked her, just to make sure.

"I never told Brendan."

"That's all I needed to know." and with that, he took off again.

"So…can I come with you?"

"No!" he yelled back!

She sighed, it was obvious that she would need to try a little more if she wanted to win his love and affection. As she decided to go her own way, she couldn't help but wonder of who else he would be going to see in relation to this. Who else would know or even tell Brendan besides her…it couldn't be who she was thinking, could it?


	10. Chapter 10

So in this chapter we get to see if Randall gets an explaination for Brendan coming to his place, also this chapter will be the first to not use roman numerals from now on. All MI characters are property of Pixar, my characters belong to me, quote is from Shinedown's "Cry for Help."

Chapter Ten

_You better pray that there's another way out, You better pray that someone's listening and doesn't want to watch you drown, Cuz when you lie like the devil himself, No angel's gonna hear your cry for help!_

_-Shinedown_

The dump was a dark and desolate place, filled with piles of trash that for some could seem like they were reaching towards the sky. The reptile like monster suddenly appeared at the entrance, slowly pushing open the rusted gates.

"Okay, now where is he?"

Randall couldn't help but feel a slight bit sick, the immense odor of the garbage was overpowering, making him wonder how could anyone stand this place, let alone live in it and call it home. He walked in between the piles of garbage, being careful to keep his eyes open for the possible signs of where the small yet pathetic monster could be. Then near the middle of the dump, he heard noises of someone scavenging. He then peeked around a bashed up refrigerator when he saw it. It was a scaly tail poking out of what appeared to be a half buried washer machine. He smirked as he then slowly crept up on the small monster.

"Man, you can never find anything good, I swear!" mumbled Weasel.

"Might help if you weren't searching through garbage." Randall answered.

The tail froze as Weasel slowly looked up and turned his head but practically jumped when he saw who was behind him, "Ra, Ra, Randall! What are you doing here?"

Poor Weasel could tell that the reptile like monster wasn't happy at all; he wasn't sure of what had tipped him off, the angry look in his eyes or the fact that Randall's four arms were crossed.

"No reason…oh by the way, Brendan came over to my house earlier today. Do you know anything about that?"

"And by anything you mean?"

"Anything like how he found out where I lived and maybe through whom this information was delivered?"

Weasel's eyes darted around before making contact with him again, "Uh, well, there might be a slight possibility that someone told him, I guess."

Randall then lowered himself to the small monster's level, "And by someone, we mean you."

"Heh, heh, heh….", then without warning, "!"

Weasel screamed as he leapt from the washer machine and ran like crazy through the dump! Randall immediately gave chase, "I knew it, I knew it was you, damn it Weasel", Randall screamed after him. The chase continued as the small monster only ran down the dirt paths but then he shifted direction when he spotted an old kitchen trashcan and dived down. Randall almost thought of going down the can but it was clearly too thin for him to attempt it, he pulled his head out of the can as he decided to try and cut off Weasel further in the dump. The dinosaur like monster appeared out of another entrance as he came out of a broken window pane. Laughing to himself as it seemed that he had escaped Randall's fury, "Ha, lost him!"

Then when he took an excited leap, he suddenly hit something and fell on his back but there wasn't anything there…or at least there wasn't until Randall reappeared right in front of him.

"Nice try." Randall told him.

He grabbed Weasel by his tail as he then started dragging him through the dump, the small monster panicking and yelling frantically as his claws dug lines through the dirt.

"No, please, no! I swear, whatever you heard, it's all lies, all freaking lies! I swear that if I did tell, it wasn't intentional! I swear it!"

The nagging was really getting annoying as Randall lifted Weasel by his tail and brought the monster's face to his own.

"I want answers! You want to tell me why you told him?"

"He asked me on info on you after that fight you and Candi had! I just happened to mention your home in there just a little!"

"What? You mean that you told Brendan MORE about me? Did he threaten you to get you to talk?"

"No!"

Randall wasn't sure about what he just heard, "Then if he didn't then why did you talk?"

"He promised me a chocolate bar!" Weasel screamed.

Randall dropped the little monster to the ground, "That's how he got you talking…he gave you a chocolate bar for info? Just one chocolate bar got you talking? That's what my privacy is worth to you, one stupid piece of candy!"

"May I mention that this was a regular sized chocolate bar, not those tiny things that you get around Halloween." Weasel explained, trying anything right now that could be used for his defense.

"That's not the point", Randall yelled, "You basically sold me out for junk food!"

He had enough as he walked off, leaving the little monster there. Now feeling offended, Weasel then followed him, "Hey, if it was you and if somebody promised you food for spilling your guts about me, you would do it too!"

"First off, I probably wouldn't! I'm more likely to spill my guts if maybe my life was threatened or even if I was told that I would get the most greatest thing in the world. Second, even if I did decide to spill my guts for food, it sure as hell wouldn't be a freaking chocolate bar!"

"I couldn't help it", Weasel cried, "I was hungry…and I have a major sweet tooth! It's been way too long since the last time I had tasted chocolate, let alone ate some! When it comes to my stomach, my brain just goes with it!"

"Yeah, well, if you're not too careful, you're going to end up with cavities!"

"I don't eat chocolate all of the time, so I'm probably not going to get them any time soon!"

Weasel followed Randall until they made it back to the entrance of the dump but that was where he stopped, still feeling a little timid but then decided to ask, "So…where you headed?"

Randall sighed, "Not that it matters but I was thinking of going to Lillian's house."

"Oh. Well…that's great, maybe you can tell her hi for me….cause she's pretty nice to me and all."

He saw Weasel slowly walk off but then his mind got him thinking, he was probably going to hate this but leaving him to have to spend another usual night alone…well, maybe for one of the few times, he could try being nice to him, for once.

"Hey Weasel, if you want to tag along, you can, so you can see Lillian and who knows, maybe she could get you a small meal…if you're interested."

"Really? That would be nice, I just don't know where she lives but that's okay because you probably know."

"We're going by roof top, just hang onto my back and please, try not to dig your claws into my skin, okay?"

"Well okay but I can't guarantee it, I kind of don't like heights."

"Great." Randall had a feeling that this little trek was going to be very delightful or better yet, probably not.

Lillian was watching the tv, trying to find something good on but it seemed like as usual, you can never find anything good on when it was late at night. Nope, same boring shows that really didn't interest her.

Randall had finally made it to her house, probably wouldn't have taken as long if Weasel wasn't the type to panic during the trip but not much could be done about that.

"Okay, now we're going to have to climb up to her window."

Weasel looked up at the two story house, "What? Can't we just ring the doorbell or something, why do we have to climb the side of the house?"

"Because that is the better thing to do, most of the time Lillian is in her room. Besides, we might draw too much attention from going through the front door!"

"Well, I'm not climbing up the side of the house, it was bad enough hopping from rooftop to rooftop like Spiderman!"

Randall shook his head as he face palmed, "Fine, I'll let you in through the front, okay?"

With that said, he climbed up towards the window as he tapped on it with his tail, waiting a bit then trying again. After about ten minutes, Weasel saw Randall climb down and slowly making his way to the front door, "I thought you were going through the window?"

"Lillian must not be in her room so we'll go with your approach for going inside, okay?"

The little monster smiled, "Fine by me."

Channel surfing seemed to be doing no good but then Lillian heard the doorbell ring, that was odd, you would think that mom would have called if she had gotten off work early. She looked through the peephole and was surprised to see Randall and some other monster with him. Wait, why would he go through the front, then it dawned on her that he tried the window but since she was in the living room, clearly that didn't work. Opening the door quickly revealed that the other little monster was…Weasel? Well, that wasn't something you saw everyday but no matter, she let them in and closed the door. Lillian checked through the windows across the street to just make sure that none of the neighbors had noticed. When she didn't see anybody out on her street, she breathed a slight sigh of relief as she turned her attention towards her visitors.

"Sorry about the window, I got a little bored and figured that maybe I could find something to watch."

"I figured that when you didn't open the window…uh, so, you got any leftovers for him." Randall asked her while pointing to Weasel.

"I think we might have some left over tuna salad from yesterday, is that okay?"

Weasel quickly nodded, "It's fine, I don't care!"

He followed her over to the fridge but when she pulled out the large plastic bowl and set it down on the counter, Weasel jumped up and grabbed it, pulled off the lid and immediately started eating out of it like a dog. Lillian just watched him for a bit, "I…was going to get you some bread to put it in…a sandwich but I guess you're fine with that?"

"If he's not complaining then it's fine." Randall told her.

After watching Weasel oddly for a bit, she then turned her attention back to her friend, "So, you two hanging out more often?"

"Not really, I just felt that I needed some answers from him."

"Answers, about what?"

Randall sighed as he then went on, "Today our good buddy Brendan along with his girlfriend came over to my house, clearly expecting to find something or someone aka me."

"Let me guess…Weasel has something to do with that?"

"Yep, he told Brendan a little too much about me for a piece of candy."

"Chocolate Bar", Weasel shouted but noticing the glances from the two, "Uh…never mind."

Lillian couldn't believe this, it was clear that another fight with them was just inevitable. She plopped down on the couch, "Well, that's it. There's no way that a rematch won't happen."

Randall knew she was concerned and for good reason, "Look, for right now, let's not worry about that. If a rematch is what Brendan wants then sooner or later, he'll have it but we have more important things to worry about."

"I know…Scourge."

The small monster nearly choked when he heard the name, "What? Please don't tell me that you want to fight him too?"

"No. I'm trying to find a way to stop him."

"Why?" Weasel asked, his voice trembling.

"Because Weasel, all of the kid murders that have taken place here in Westport are because of him. All of you banished monsters know this yet none of you do anything about it." Lillian explained.

"You have to understand Lillian, it's not that nobody hasn't tried. A few monsters here or there have due to how these murders can endanger us but it doesn't end well. Scourge is just too dangerous a monster to take on! That and also the fact that not all monsters are fond of humans so since these murders are related to humans, they don't care."

"But it's like you said, if Scourge is eventually discovered to be the murderer, who says that he won't reveal the rest of the monsters who live here then you're all in danger. The fact that he just enjoys killing above all else truly shows that he lacks morels and has to be stopped!" Lillian retorted.

"Okay, okay, you make a point but why is it that you need to do this, Randall?"

"Because nobody else will and besides, I personally don't like Scourge that much and if getting him to stop will make my life easier, along with everyone else's, I'm all for it."

The small monster still felt unsure, "I still think this is a bad idea, I mean, anyone who tries to stop Scourge is crazy in my book…not that I ever thought you were, Randall."

Through the darkness of night, a strange creature flew over the city of West Port until it had reached the outskirts of the country side. From a distance, it would be difficult to spot but up close, it was none other than Stallion. As he and his companion had agreed on, she would see what happened during the day while he would scour the city at night. Not much had happened this particular night, let alone the other nights he had gone out, although something did happen that caught his eye. He slowly landed next to the large house where he was for now calling home, making his way towards the garage where Celine met him at the door.

"I hope I didn't keep you up for very long."

"Nah", she smiled, "I figured that you would be back by now. So, anything interesting?"

He led the way inside as he chose to retire in front of the fireplace, "Yes, actually. Tonight I had spotted an unusual pair of monsters who it seems to me were let inside of a house belonging to a human."

"Let inside? Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm very certain about this. The door had opened on it's own without any help from them. Someone had to have let them in and considering the appearance and condition of the home, it was most likely being inhabited."

"Could you tell what they looked like?" Celine asked.

"One monster was quite small so I couldn't see him that well although his companion was a good size, looking reptilian if I'm not mistaken."

"So, there is another human in this town who knows about the monsters of your world then?"

"More than likely, yes which also builds to my suspicions of another possibility."

"And that is?" she asked him.

Stallion stretched his wings a bit before starting again, "One of these monsters may possibly be the ghost of the mansion that you had told me about. A monster living and using that house as his protection could have a better chance of meeting a child who would have possibly been challenged to enter that place."

"The only problem is which one? So far I don't hear much talk from the students of the schools that I've checked out which may mean that we'll have to investigate the house."

"If that is the case then you shall have to do just that first thing in the morning."

Celine took her place upon the recliner, "If I can pull up a map of this town online, do you think that you might be able to remember the location of the house that you spotted the two monsters at?"

"I believe so, yes." Stallion answered her. For the next few hours, the two talked over locations of both places and what to do next.

Inside of Mike and Sulley's apartment, all three of the monsters were talking over what Fungus had learned from Kevin. Sulley, still just as tired, did his best to listen to all of what Fungus discovered without falling asleep.

"Bottom line," Fungus started to finish, "I think that our best option could be that we'll have to go into the human world and investigate this ghost story."

"And how, if you don't mind me asking, are we going to do this without being trapped in the human world?" Mike asked him.

"Look, I believe that Kevin's door can be used as our way in and out of the human world. As long as we go during a time when it will be night in the city of West Port then it shouldn't be a problem. According to my research, during a four hour window during our night is also during part of West Port's night. That small time window for us is from one to five in the morning which is equal to nine to one at night for them. I believe that as long as we keep track of time then four hours should be a good number of time for us to do further research during the next few nights or so. Judging from the information that Kevin told me, I suspect that our ghost could possibly be Randall."

"Okay, but what about our murderer?" Sulley asked him.

"Once we discover the origin of the ghost of this town, then we can try to do some undercover work if possible, watching this monster to see what happens. If the ghost and murderous monster are the same then we'll need to formulate a plan in order to take care of him or something like that."

A strange knock was at the door, Mike looked over at the clock, "Who the heck is that?"

The green monster stood up and opened the door but froze when he saw who it was, "What the…what are you doing here?"

Roz smiled at his shocked expression, "Not too happy to see me, are we, Mr. Wasoski?"

Sulley and Fungus were frozen with just as much shock as Mike was, knowing that now all of their hard work could be lost.

"Calm yourself boys, I'm not here because we're arresting you. For a little while the agents were trying to do our research upon the mystery murderer although we were hoping that you wouldn't have found out about it."

Now Sulley started to get angry, "So you did know? You probably know who it is, don't you?"

"I'm afraid not", Roz answered him, "Considering that we have banished quite a few monsters in the past due to our past fears, there's a number of suspects but it seems that you all have made a little investigation on your own. Although, going into the human world without a true plan isn't smart, Mr. Sullivan."

Sulley was aware of the tone of her voice, "So then what are you suggesting?"

"I suggest that you allow us to aid you in your operation, find this monster, and bring him back here to Monstropolis where he should have stayed in the first place."

"Exactly why should we let you help us?" Mike told her.

"Because given if and when you all confront this monster, you will need some form of help to get him back to the monster world. It seems to me that if he enjoys the freedom he has gained from banishment, he's less likely to want to return home just to sit in a cell."

"She does make a good point." Fungus pointed out.

"Trust me, working with us will make it a much smoother operation than just working alone."

Sulley, after truly thinking this over, decided that she was right, "Alright fine but if we're going to work together then there's going to be no secrets. We need to be able to trust each other in order for this to work."

She sighed but nodded, "Fine then, Mr. Sullivan. I will release to you what we've gathered although compared to what you have, it's not too much more."

"Is it possible for you to do this first thing tomorrow morning?" He asked her.

She thought it over then agreed, "Very well, Mr. Sullivan. Agent 125 will do that and bring to you what we have on a disc for you and your accomplices to look over. So with that said, good evening to you, gentlemen."

Roz took her leave with Mike closing the door right behind her, "Sheesh, thought she'd never leave."

"Mike." Sulley remarked.

"I know but she still gives me the creeps sometimes."

Around ten or so in the morning, Agent 125 headed over to Sulley's office with the disc that contained the information of the CDA's research.

"Here you are, Mr. Sullivan." the agent spoke, holding the cd in his hand.

Sulley grabbed the disc and put it in the drive of the computer, immediately it started running and a window with multiple folders opened up. He started to look through each one, scanning through documents that related to what was reported in the human world and to the cases of the children found dead. Then he found one folder that held old records of monsters who might have been suspects. It interested him to see that one of the records was that of Randall.

"If you don't mind me asking", Sulley began, "But why is this one a particular suspect?"

Agent 125 looked at the image of the reptilian monster, "Because he is the most recent who has been sent to the human world and considering what his activities here involved, he became a suspect. Of course, as you know, until we can prove that he is the one, Mr. Boggs remains as a suspect for now."

Made sense, Randall was one of the last monsters and most recent to be sent to the human world but of course, how he ended up there was not at the hands of the CDA. Then he saw a record relating to a wolf like monster, dark blue in color, opening his file and reading that he was banished due to his contamination. Sulley read over the profile, "Huh, do you know who this one is?"

The agent peered at the screen again, "Oh yes, he's a much older case, I believe he went by the name of Scourge. He was banished due to killing one of his scaring assignments, the CDA had suspicions that there were other assignments of his killed but due to dead doors being shredded, it wasn't confirmed. Due to how he was believed to be contaminated and what he had done, the agents in charge at that time felt it was best to send him to the human world because he could have been a threat to monsters and their health here."

"Why didn't they just do a type of quarantine with him?" Sulley asked.

"I'm afraid that I don't know, I wasn't hired till much later after his case, Mr. Sullivan. You would probably have to ask Number One about that."

"When monsters are banished, isn't a record kept of where they've been sent to in the human world?"

"I'm afraid not, it could be that once banished, the monster is no longer our problem. Even if we did keep records, some monsters won't stay in one place for too long and may choose to travel from city to city. In fact, banishment of monsters has lead to some of the legends and stories that humans tell over the years."

"Isn't that dangerous for us?"

Agent 125 shook his head, "Not necessarily, while some humans are believers in things not of their world, most are not and choose to believe only what they can see and confirm for themselves. You could say that just like we have our skeptics, humans have theirs."

Sulley eyed him for a minute, "You know quite a bit."

"Well, it's not without its research, Mr. Sullivan. I used to be a scarer at a competing company for a good couple of years and during that time, instead of fully fearing humans, I was curious about them actually. I would try to formulate my own theories about them and their world even though some of my fellow scarers thought I was weird because of it. Then one day, agents arrived at my home and offered to me the chance to be a CDA agent because they had found out about my thoughts upon the humans. Turns out that even the CDA has their own theories and question whether our beliefs might have been false all of these years. I remember the Waternoose incident and when I saw along with the others how you held that child and how she caused you no harm, it was such a remarkable thing to me of what I was learning just in those few moments."

Sulley almost felt a tear but wiped his eyes to push it away, "So, can I keep this?"

"I will allow you to hold onto it till around two but I'm afraid that I'll have to take it back with me after that."

"That's fine, gives me time to show Mike and Fungus what we have here, let Roz know that I'm grateful that she's done this."

The agent nodded, "Sure thing, Mr. Sullivan."


	11. Chapter 11

This chapter will be the last to use quotes from music by Shinedown off of their "Sound of Madness" cd, quotes for future chapters may be from other artists instead. This chapter also introduces a little early the character known as Morgana in the story. MI characters belong to Pixar, my characters are mine, quote from Shinedown. Please review and comment.

Chapter Eleven

_If I drown tonight, bring me back to life, Breathe your breath in me, The only thing that I still believe in is you, If you only knew._

_-Shinedown_

It wasn't long before one of the most favorite months for children had arrived, the dark month of October which meant one thing, Halloween. A favorite holiday for both humans and the monsters within West Port for it was the one night where the banished monsters could go out amongst the humans without fear, using their appearances as a guise and illusion for a costume that was fabricated. Randall over the few years really started to gain a strong love for this holiday and took it as his vacation from scaring children within his home for once. Along with that, he was filled with a type of excitement but also a hint of worry. Since Scourge's last kill, there wasn't any more reports of any other deaths which made him question what the wolf was thinking. Was he just taking a break or was he biding his time until the one night where any kind of horrors could take place? That was the worrisome part, the more exciting part was the fact that this would be his first Halloween spent with someone other than Weasel, he wasn't sure what Lillian would be doing for a costume but she had the whole month to prepare.

It's interesting how great minds think alike, from the start of October Lillian spent a lot of time shopping and searching for costumes or as a last resort, some way to put together a costume. So far, no idea was coming to mind but she would have the whole month though. She went ahead and bought a horror type magazine which showed all kinds of costumes in it for the month. There were of course the usual costumes based upon movie characters, there were the typical Halloween stuff that was sold every year, and of course there was the new stuff just released for this year alone. She looked at a lot of the outfits, not finding too much of anything she liked. A lot of the costumes seemed to be the same, short skirts, tank tops, pantyhose, and high heels. Sheesh, isn't there one costume that didn't look like it came straight from the playboy mansion, she thought. After skimming further and still finding nothing, she closed the book very unsatisfied, it was clear that putting something together was her best bet. The bus had stopped and it was off to school but when she entered the building, Lillian wasn't sure if she was seeing things. There was a girl wearing a long black dress with strange looking pigtails in the hallway and judging from her confusion, she looked like she was lost.

Lillian walked up to her, "Hey, you looking for something?"

The girl smiled at Lillian, "Yeah, hey, do you know where the office for this school is?"

"Yeah, down that hallway to your left." She directed her.

"Cool, thanks a bunch." the girl said as she took off.

Lillian thought she looked a little strange but she did like her hair, still, chances are that she probably wouldn't see the girl again except for maybe lunch or even after school. Then Lillian heard another voice as she looked down the hallway, the girl had accidentally bumped Brendan, "Watch it!" he yelled.

"Whatever, pretty boy!" She shot back as she kept going.

Brendan held a cold glance on the girl then his attention shifted to Lillian, she decided to ignore him when he came up to her locker.

"So, tell me, did your oversized pet mention anything about getting an awkward surprise in his home?"

She glanced at him for just a minute before answering, "Why, what's it to you?"

"Just curious."

"If you're talking about how you decided to trespass and go into his house uninvited then yes, I've already heard." She saw no point of acting dense about it, Weasel had told him so it wasn't a big secret anymore.

"Technically he doesn't own that house, the city does so I wasn't trespassing on his property."

"Then in that case, you were trespassing on city property. That's a bigger deal, right?"

Brendan just smirked at her attitude, "Let's cut the crap, shall we? It's clear that I want a rematch and I'm not going to let this go. If your reptile is a true man, he would accept my challenge."

"He probably does", she then shut her locker, "But I don't."

"Well, since this is a dispute between me and him, it's not your place to say."

"He's my friend so it is."

"I just find it so amusing how you say the word friend and talk about him as if he were human."

"You're one to talk, you buy your little slave anything she wants so who's the one treating what isn't human as a human?"

"I only do that just to keep her quiet and satisfied, and also, gives her a reason to do what I tell her. And just for the record, I don't treat her as a slave, understand?"

"If you're giving something that's older than you orders then that qualifies as a slave to me."

"Whatever. Now, if it's convenient for you, I demand a rematch tonight and if I have to, I will gladly go over to his house to get it."

"What if he's not there when you arrive?" Lillian asked.

"Then I'll just go to your house instead. Either place is fine with me."

She sighed but then the bell rang, first period, "Fine, I'll tell him but after this, win or lose, that's it. No more fights after this one."

Brendan nodded, "Got it, win or lose." Lillian took off to first period as Brendan started heading towards his class, Candi joining him at his side, "So now what?"

"We're getting our rematch tonight", he told her, "And this time, no ties or losses, we're beating this asshole!"

Lillian took her seat in first period just as the final bell rang, their teacher coming in just a couple of minutes after. As the teacher set his book bag down, the girl that had asked Lillian for directions to the office stepped into the room and handed the teacher a paper. He looked it over for a minute, "Ah, new student", then he called attention to the class, "Quiet down everyone, it appears that we have ourselves a new member of the student body named Morgana. Now, I hope we can all be nice and courteous as we make her feel welcome. Morgana, you can take a seat now."

This new girl had noticed where Lillian was sitting and smiled as she walked down the row of desks to take the seat next to her. "Hey, bumped into you twice already. That's pretty cool. So, what's your name since I didn't ask you earlier?"

"My name's Lillian."

"Excuse me, quiet please, class has already started." their teacher remarked.

"We'll talk later." Morgana whispered.

Within the next few hours, lunch period for seventh grade finally arrived and for the first time in a long time, Lillian had someone to spend it with as opposed to spending it alone. In fact, during the whole lunch period, the two girls talked about themselves and what their interests were. Lillian couldn't believe that she had met another person whom she had a lot in common with. She had found out that Morgana had moved here with her parents who had applied to be morticians for the funeral home located near West Port. Morgana had found it pretty interesting that Lillian had a love for music and she also found Morgana's interest in photography to be pretty neat as well. While it was probably something that went unnoticed to those around them, it was clear that the two were slowly starting to become friends.

The rest of the day seemed to pass by quickly enough until finally school had let out. As Lillian headed over to Morgana's locker as the two had agreed, Brendan followed her for a bit until she had turned around to face him.

"What is it?" She asked.

"Don't forgot to tell your oversized gecko that we'll be meeting him at his place tonight around midnight, if that's alright with you?"

Lillian thought it over a bit, she was going to be hanging out with Morgana for a few hours but she figured that it wouldn't take too long and she would have plenty of time to let Randall know about Brendan's rematch with them, "Fine, I'll tell him."

"Good, we'll see you tonight then." and with that, he walked towards the double doors where Candi was waiting for him.

When Lillian turned back around, she saw Morgana heading her direction, "What's up with him? Biting off another head for a snack?"

Lillian couldn't help but smirk at her joke, "It's nothing, don't worry about it. In fact, if you just stay away from him, he doesn't bother you."

The girl shrugged, "Whatever. So, we'll go to my place so I can show you some of my pictures. I guarantee you, you're gonna love them!"

"You sure your folks won't mind?" Lillian asked her.

"Trust me, they'll be fine, it's not everyday when we have a person come over who has a pulse. They'll be okay with it."

Randall was taking his regular nap when he had heard the old clock play it's usual chime which sometimes would play, sometimes wouldn't. Yawning, he picked up his head as he squinted his eyes in an attempt to read the hands on the clock. It read about four or so…huh, that was strange, he knew that school had let out by now and Lillian would have made it over here depending on her pace. Well, it still was a little early so there was still time for her to make it over here. Suddenly his fronds twitched and stiffened as his head instantly perked, somebody was coming but it wasn't Lillian or even Brendan. He instantly camouflaged himself as he waited to see whom it was, probably another restless kid looking to see if the ghost story was true.

A human figure could be seen outside the small glass on the front door, then the slight creak of the door when they entered. The footsteps could be heard coming towards the music room but when Randall spied to see who had came in, it wasn't a kid at all. It was a young woman, possibly in her twenties judging from her appearance. Damn, this wasn't what I had in mind, he thought. Randall had no problem when it came to scaring kids, it was always fun especially since due to their age, any wild stories of monsters was ignored but an adult was a different matter.

He stayed hidden as she slowly walked around the piano, taking into notice all of the black marks on the walls. She slightly passed her hand over them, picking up dust and dirt upon her fingers. Then she turned her focus towards the piano, eyeing it curiously as she came towards it. She played a key or two but then she noticed how there seemed to be not as much dust upon the top of it as she had seen on the objects around her. She then placed her hand on the top of it but all she felt was just the piano. Randall fearing the possibility of her accidentally touching him, swiftly jumped upon the ceiling and stayed there. Then it wasn't long before she looked up at the ceiling, staring straight into his eyes or she would have been if she would have seen him. Then she pulled out a small camera and started taking pictures of the room, taking a picture of each wall of the room, the piano, and then the ceiling. After all of that, she was done and left the house completely.

When Randall was sure that he heard the door close after her, he jumped back down and reappeared. That so far had to be one of the strangest incidents that happened to him in this house, Brendan finding his place he could deal with but who was that human? It didn't make any sense to him as to why some random woman would come in and take pictures. Unless…she was someone from real estate but that couldn't be possible. This house was considered a danger and too much hassle to fix it up, in fact, the city would have better luck if they tore it down. Well, if she did come back again, he would decide to make her a nice exception to his rule in case she wanted something to do with his house.

The woman who had left the house was actually Celine, that was one place down which left the house that Stallion had seen the two monsters at. She got into the black car and drove off towards the street where the other house resided. The drive wasn't very long as she slowly passed by the house, she could see a van but no other sign that somebody was there. Celine decided to change tactics, she pulled out a map that had red dots marking where the bodies of the children were found. The first location she decided to check out was where the body of the young girl was found inside of the warehouse.

The drive there took much longer, about twenty minutes or so. She parked the car near the curb of the warehouse as she noticed that the outside entrance was boarded up. Probably something that the police chose to do just in case the murderer thought of coming back. She looked around until she saw another board on the ground, using it as her way to try and pry off the other boards but it wasn't working.

"Okay, new plan then."

Then she noticed that some of the windows were broken, Celine decided to change her way of entry. Using the board, she smashed the glass further from one broken window until the frame was nearly empty. After that, Celine felt inside for a lock and undoing it, pulled open the window. She then crawled inside into nearly darkness with only light filtering through windows and any holes within the roofing. The warehouse was filled with boxes here or there but then she had noticed that one particular area of the boxes still had police tape around it. Judging from how this area was kept, it was the location of where the girl was killed. There were very dark stains, probably blood from when it happened. She remembered that according to this town's newspaper, this girl was actually raped and then her throat was slit which led to her bleeding to death. The police found it a little odd considering that this girl was older than the others killed and also that she was attacked sexually which was a completely new thing for this killer to do.

Celine crouched down as she looked upon the floor, trying to get any clues besides what she could see, hoping that maybe the police had missed something then she noticed it. She saw a tiny little rock that was wedged into one of the boxes. She pulled out of her pocket some small forceps as she pulled it out of the wood. When she looked at it closer, it wasn't a rock but a tip of a claw, like something that would belong to a cat or dog. Then she noticed that here or there was slight pieces of fur that were stained with the blood. She pulled one up from the ground and looked at it, there was a chance that if she could wash off the blood that she could discover the true color of the fur. She tucked both little pieces inside of a tiny little plastic bag and then figured that it was best to take her leave. While she was no expert, she had a bit of a hunch that maybe the reptilian monster that Stallion saw was just a random monster. It was possible that their true killer had a body shape and features more similar to a mammal than a reptile. Still, this was just a hunch for now, at least till she could look at what she gathered.

Morgana's house was a spooky looking place and from what Lillian could tell, her parents really had a true love for old Victorian and gothic style design. She felt that she was walking through Dracula's castle than a house.

"Wow, your parents are the ones that decorated, right?"

"Yep", she beamed, "When they were young during their college days, it took them one trip to Italy and boom, my mother wanted everything that was dark and mysterious. My dad didn't mind since he's more of a medieval man himself."

"And they're okay with your dress style?" she asked.

"Well…dad was a little concerned but my mother had no problem with it so they figured that as long as I don't get in trouble for it at school, no big deal."

"That's pretty cool, my mom isn't so happy about mine, always saying that she buys me clothes for nothing since nobody can see them."

"So you wear the hoodie all the time?" Morgana asked her.

"Well, yeah, it saves on grabbing a jacket when it gets cold out. It's not a problem, right?'

"I don't care, it's your style, to each their own."

She followed the goth to her room, inside it was just as dark as it was in the rest of the house, upon her bed were three black cats sleeping. "Cool, you got pets?"

"Yep, these are my cats. That's Damien, Lucifer, and Sabattha. She's the only girl."

The female cat lifted her head and stretched then jumped down from the bed, rubbing and purring against Lillian's leg while the other two still slept. Morgana smiled, "Sabattha is more social than the boys, all they want to do is sleep all day."

Morgana pulled out a large photo album and handed it over to Lillian, "Here, take a seat, let me know what you think of them? Any opinion at all, good or bad, just let me know."

Morgana plopped down on her bed as the springs caused the two cats to bounce up a little. Lillian looked from one photograph to the other, each one was good, some were even a little creepy.

"You definitely can take a good picture." Lillian told her.

"Thanks", Morgana remarked, "So, when I first came here, I heard that this boring little town actually has a ghost, in that old house on one of the corners?"

Lillian froze, she knew that it probably wouldn't have been long before her new friend would have heard about that house.

"Um, yeah, you must mean the old musician's place."

"Yeah, that one, overheard from some boys in my English class that it actually has the ghost of that guy who died there. Have you been in the house and if so, have you seen the ghost?"

Lillian wasn't sure of what to say, she knew that telling Morgana about Randall was a bad idea. Although, if she lied and told her that she had been in and seen nothing, maybe Morgana would leave it at that…if she wasn't the type to be curious, that is. Having her first school friend was proving to be harder than she expected and they were barely becoming friends.

"I have…but I don't think there's a ghost in there. I had actually stayed in that house for about a half hour once and didn't see or hear anything. That story is a pretty old one, in fact those who probably claim seeing it probably just imagined it or something."

Morgana looked a little disappointed but then her face brightened, "Maybe you went around a bad time. If we try going around a time where it's a darker hour or something then maybe we could see something or even have it speak to us!"

Shoot, this wasn't what Lillian wanted, she had lied to defuse the curiosity, not encourage it!

"Hey, if it's okay with your mom then we can go check it out tonight!"

Not good, but luckily Lillian knew the answer to this, "Sorry, but my mom won't let me, she works late shifts so I'm stuck at home until morning."

It seemed like that did it, Morgana nodded her head and it seemed fine until, "Well, okay, my folks would probably be picky about it too. Then how about this, we'll go by that place tomorrow, I definitely want to take some pictures."

While this wasn't any better, it would work out regardless, this way she could warn Randall about them coming tomorrow so that way he could stay hidden. She looked over at the clock, it was almost six, "I better get home, my mom might be wondering where I went."

Morgana pouted a little, "Well, okay but remember, tomorrow we're heading over there first thing after school."

"Sure." Lillian told her.

The two girls headed back towards the front door as Lillian said her goodbyes and headed home. Considering the time, she would have no choice but to head home and try to leave as soon as her mother left for work so that she could let Randall know about the fight.

Celine was examining what she had found within the warehouse, looking at the claw tip under a microscope while the strand of fur was being soaked in water. Stallion watched her until finally, "Looks like our killer is definitely a clawed animal."

Then she used the forceps to pull out the hair, place it upon a slide, and placed it under the microscope after pulling out the previous slide. Looking through the microscope, she could see the true color of the fur after the water had rinsed off the blood.

"Huh…what color did you say the reptile monster was?" she asked.

"It was a little hard to tell but I would say he was a violet color, why do you ask?" remarked Stallion.

"Because unless he can grow fur and claws from time to time, he's definitely not our killer. Our killer, judging from this, has blue covered fur and claws."

"What about the pictures you took?"

She left the microscope for the while to go over to a lab top where she had connected the camera to and opened the files up. Stallion then decided to take a look at the piece of fur, it was a dark blue color but so far, he hadn't seen any monster with such features yet. Celine looked at the pictures but wasn't sure of what she was looking for. Each one showed nothing but it wasn't until she looked at the one of the ceiling was when she had noticed something. There seemed to be a form of some kind on the ceiling that shined a little due to the flash on the camera. She opened up that particular picture in another program and inversed the colors which turned all the darker shades nearly white and bright colors. This way, she could see the form much better, it was something with more than four limbs and judging from the sheen it gave off, it was scaled.

"Hey Stallion, take a look at this."

The horse like monster came over to her side as he stared in astonishment, "Seems your pictures did find something after all. That looks a lot like the reptilous monster that I had spotted the last time I had went out. And these pictures were taken within that older house upon the corner, you said?"

"Yep, the same one with the ghost story behind it although when I was there, I honestly didn't see anything."

"Hmm", Stallion gave this some thought, "Could be that this monster may have a camouflaging ability that allows him to blend in although as we have seen, this ability does have one flaw."

"Yep," Celine agreed, "And that would be something as simple as a flash on a camera."

"Indeed, and what about the other house?"

"I went over there, a van was parked outside but I didn't see anybody go inside or come out."

"Alright, then tonight we shall go over to the home to see when this monster will return to it and find out exactly why."


	12. Chapter 12

This chapter marks the second and final rematch between Randall and Candi, this fight wasn't as long as their first due to the fact that I was trying to avoid it becoming a repeat of the first. MI characters belong to Pixar, my characters are mine, quote by Eminem from his song "Not Afraid".

Chapter Twelve

_I'm not afraid to take a stand, everybody, come take my hand, we'll walk this road together through the storm, whatever weather, cold or warm, just letting you know that you're not alone, hollar if you feel like you've been down the same road._

_-Eminem_

Lillian stared at the clock, it was nearly eleven thirty and her mother was barely leaving, "Mom, if you don't hurry up then you're going to be late."

"I know, sweetheart, I know", she hugged her daughter, "Now remember, I want you in bed right after that show finishes, okay?"

"No problem."

With that said, her mother finally went out the door and got into her van, pulling out of the driveway and down the street. Lillian at least waited a good ten minutes just to make sure that she wasn't coming back after forgetting something then when it seemed certain, she bolted upstairs and got dressed. Lillian grabbed the spare house keys, her cell phone, and finally got herself out the door.

From within the dark shadows, Stallion and Celine were watching as she left the house.

"It seems that the resident of the house has a child." Celine told him.

"Now where would she be going at this late an hour?"

Stallion was starting to spread his wings but then Celine placed a hand upon his neck, "Easy, give her a bit of a head start so that way she won't notice us."

They waited until Lillian was about half way down her block and then, "Now?"

Celine nodded, "Okay, now."

Stallion, swiftly but silently, launched himself high up as he used the darkness as his cover, being extremely careful to avoid drifting into the moonlight so as to not cast a shadow.

When Lillian finally made it to the old house, it was about eleven forty six, she made it with enough time but she still wasn't sure how Randall was going to react to his fight which would start when Brendan showed up only fourteen minutes later. Going inside, she then made her way to the music room and as usual, didn't see him at first.

"Randall? Randall, you in?"

On top of the piano, he reappeared but noticed how out of breath she was, "Hey, were you jogging or something?"

"Pretty much, yeah. We've got a problem, Brendan told me before he left school that he was challenging you to a fight at midnight, I tried to get over here sooner but first I went to Morgana's place then when I got home, Mom practically wouldn't leave and-!"

"Whoa, slow down. Brendan's coming over here in a bit to fight me again?"

"Yes, he agreed that win or lose, this will be the last time."

Randall gave a sly smirk, "Alright then, if that's what helps him sleep at night, fine. Of course this time around, I know his little girlfriend's moves so I'll have a better idea of how to deal with her."

Then it just dawned on Randall in relation to Lillian's story, "Hey, wait, who's Morgana?"

"She's this new girl at school, we met this morning when I helped her find the office, turns out that she has few classes with me. During lunch we were talking and talking, the two of us have a lot in common actually. After school she invited me over to her house to look at her pictures, she likes doing photography on the side, a hobby of hers and she's pretty good at it."

Randall was happy for Lillian, she had made herself a first human friend which was nice, it meant that she wouldn't be so lonely at school anymore.

"Which reminds me", Lillian started to ask, "Tomorrow after school, she wants to come over here and take some pictures so if you think you could make sure that you stay invisible so that way we don't accidentally scare her off?"

The reptilious monster gave her a stern look but then nodded his approval. "Thanks Randall." Lillian told him.

Randall tried to give her his best smile though it wasn't easy. He should have figured that sooner or later, Lillian would meet somebody at school who could relate to her but it was clear that for his well being, he had to stay a secret although if Lillian had a human friend, this meant that Lillian would be spending more time with this Morgana and less time with him. What if eventually the time spent with him became less and less until finally, she stopped coming over altogether. He couldn't help but feel a twinge of jealousy, he was Lillian's friend first but the only reason why he had to stay a secret was because of one thing, he wasn't human. While Lillian seemed to accept this just fine, that didn't mean that her new friend would, in fact, worst case scenario would be her friend trying to contact police about him and he becoming some science experiment.

Then footsteps could be heard, two pairs of them actually when the two looked into the room's entrance. Brendan appeared with Candi right by his side, "So, are you two ready to get this over with and accept defeat?"

"You're assuming that you'll be the winner already, a little overconfident are we?" Randall told him.

"Well, confidence is key."

Lillian rolled her eyes, this was just silly but might as well get it over with, "Okay, so where are we fighting now? Clearly we can't do it here and the warehouse we were at before is a crime scene now so where do you suggest we go?"

"We'll fight at the old coliseum."

"You mean that place with the old amusement park?" Randall asked him.

"Yep, the very one."

Candi giggled, "We're going to fight at my house now!"

Lillian stared at him, "If you wanted to fight there in the first place then why didn't you tell me that earlier, we could have met you there instead."

"I had a different idea of where we were meeting but Candi insisted on that location. Let's get going, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can began."

All four went outside, Candi carried Brendan while Randall carried Lillian, the two monsters started from the roof of the old house and continued heading towards the building. It was going to take some time to get there carrying humans with them, but eventually they would make it with good time. Celine and Stallion saw the new monster and human but still continued their flight towards the new destination.

They had finally arrived, the entrance to the old amusement park was locked up but Candi simply jumped over the gate then Randall followed suit. Once inside the main gates, Randall stared with a look of surprise.

"What?" Lillian asked him.

"I don't know why but this place reminds me of that game I like to play, the one with the dead carnival."

"Follow me to the fighting arena, lizard boy." Candi seductively spoke.

Randall just gave a stern look as he followed, he wasn't in the mood for her to flirt with him, that wasn't the reason why they were here. The small walk led them weaving through old attractions and game booths until they had made it to a large indoor stadium. Candi and Brendan led their guests through the double doors and down a long open corridor through a huge entrance into what looked like an old three ring circus. To Randall's astonishment, this area still had up a trapeze although the safety net was gone. Candi ran over to an area that contained switches to where she pulled down a lever which then turned on the lighting for the area.

The four positioned themselves within the center ring, "Rules are the same as before, nothing has changed except for the location, fight keeps going till somebody loses", Brendan explained.

"So where do we watch from?" Lillian asked.

"We can watch from the rows of seats, they can use all three rings and then some as their fighting grounds."

As if on cue, the two teenagers stepped out of the arena and took their place up within the stands. Candi smiled mischievously at Randall, somehow he couldn't help but ask, "What?"

"I was thinking that maybe we could make this even more interesting. How would you feel about a bet?"

"What kind of bet?" he asked, perking his fronds at the word.

"If I win, you have to be my boyfriend."

"No way!" he remarked. She frowned at this then thought of something else, "Okay…how about this, I win, you take me out on a date. Is that better?"

Randall thought it over for just a bit, in all honesty a date with Candi was something he didn't want.

"Well?" Candi demanded.

"I'm thinking!"

Brendan was losing patience, "What are they doing?"

"I don't know, looks like they're talking something over." Lillian remarked.

"Are you two going to start anytime soon!" he yelled at them.

Randall glared over annoyed but understood, they weren't here to talk, they were here to duke it out for the final time. "Okay, fine, I'll agree to that. If you win then I'm all yours for an evening."

"And what do you want if you win?" Candi asked him.

"Nothing really, I just want to do this so that way your little boyfriend over there leaves me alone. Besides, I know your moves by now so I'm a little more prepared this time around."

"Don't forget that we're in my place now."

Randall gave his usual sly smirk, he cracked his knuckles as he flicked his tail a bit. Candi's expression became immediately serious as she then ran at him, claws extended and aiming for his face. The beginning of the fight started off simple, Candi's attempted swipes and punches would be blocked by either Randall's own arms or he would just duck out of the way. When he saw an opening, he quickly spun as his tail pulled out Candi's feet from under her but she quickly recovered by landing just a yard or so away from him. She charged again but this time, she would try adding in a kick or two into the mix. Randall kept up with her routine pretty good until she kneed him. Luckily, she only got him just a little above his stomach. It did hurt but he wasn't phased when he got on all his limbs and charged her, ramming head first and sending her flying near the outer ring. Quickly, she shot upward strands of fur which stopped her descent, she then swung with the strands like a child at the playground.

Randall watched her for a few minutes, she was swinging and twirling with the strands, it was almost her way of mocking him. Then she pulled herself up towards the trapeze, running along it till she jumped down, landing behind the reptililous creature. She immediately sprang from the ground and rammed her whole body into his, the two went tumbling across the floor when Randall grabbed her ankle with his tail. He used all the strength he could to toss her off of him but when she landed, she immediately dashed towards the monster then leaped for him. While doing so, she then transformed herself into the large white wolf that she loved to disguise herself as. Randall wasn't expecting that and was really not expecting her to pounce on him and bite down upon his left arm, hard! He growled at her as he jerked his arm around, trying to get her to let go. "Candi! OW! Let go of my…OW, damn it, let go of my arm now!"

She growled a slight response but refused to let go, secretly she was enjoying this little advantage especially since she never used it during their last fight. In fact, she couldn't understand why she didn't, her shape shifting really gave her an edge because she could change into anything and be able to overpower Randall if she wanted. This silly game of tug a war seemed like it was going on much longer than it really did especially since Randall was wasting all of his energy on getting her to release him.

Lillian felt helpless as she watched although she had to admit that what Candi was doing was clever. She looked over at Brendan, his expression wasn't changing at all. It wasn't happy nor angry, just very stern and unmoving. Wasn't this the same guy that before seemed to boast so much on Candi's previous victories against other monsters? Was he that bothered by the supposed tie from before that he was nervous about the results of this fight? Lillian honestly felt that maybe from last time, Brendan had felt a slight jab at his ego. He seemed like the type and to make matters a little more tense, so was Randall. This fight was more about a battle of male pride then a fight between two monsters. That was it, she thought, Brendan felt threatened by Randall who was also male despite not being human. All she was hoping for was when the fight was finished, Brendan would keep to his word and leave them alone, no matter who won.

Stallion and Celine were watching the fight from the comfort of the roof through a broken shingle. The horse like monster was a slight bit disgusted, he was raised that a true gentleman didn't fight a lady.

"Honestly." he remarked.

"What?" Celine asked him.

"How can that scaled deliquent just go on like that, fighting a young lady. Not respectful, not in the least!"

"I don't know, it looked like that she was the one who started the fight. From what I see, the reptile is just defending himself."

"That's no excuse to put your claws upon a woman."

Celine sighed as she walked carefully towards a roof entrance, Stallion wasn't sure of what she was doing, "If you don't mind me asking, where are you going?"

"I'm going to find a closer seat, from my view, it looks like I'm watching an ant and a tiny gecko fight."

Not wanting to leave his spot yet still worried for his companion's safety, Stallion followed her into the stadium.

Back to the fight, Randall stood hunched over a little while Candi held her ground, canine grip still on his arm. He was panting and clearly showing signs of tiring due to this little game of hers. Then his thoughts went to their bet, went to her prize if she won, he then decided to give it one last shot and with what energy he had left, chose to ram Candi's form into a nearby wooden pole. She gave a loud yelp as she immediately let go, falling upon the floor as she quickly changed back. Randall was stunned, that was something he wasn't expecting to happen but then it became clear to him. She wrapped her arms around her chest, feeling the pain of when he had nearly crushed her against the pole. Her shape shifting wasn't perfect, this was his advantage, very strong blows of pain against her body forced it to shift back.

Brendan could tell that her flaw to her abilities was found out, "Damn it Candi, get up", he yelled.

She looked up at him in confusion until she felt herself being lifted up, Randall's tail wrapped around her waist. He immediately spun himself in circles, tightening his grip while Candi was lost in the dizziness she felt from all of this spinning. Just when she thought she couldn't take it anymore, he released her and she went flying across from the middle ring into the neighboring one. She landed upon the ground in a crumpled heap, barely moving from the pain in her chest and now from the spasms of pain she felt in her whole body. Candi was then covered in a shadow as she looked up into the green eyes of her opponent, his lack of expression upon his face.

Then he smiled, "Well, looks like I won."

He offered her his hand to help her but she turned her face away, immediately crying since now this meant that her chance with him was gone. He became concerned, he was hoping that his last attempt at winning didn't hurt her more than he had anticipated.

"You can go now!"

Randall turned to see Brendan jumping down from the seats and making his way over to where the two monsters were.

"She might need some help, looks like I over did it a little."

"She'll be just fine."

"Well, still I-."

"I said she'll be fine!" Brendan retorted.

The two gave each other a deathlike stare, it was clear that the perfect track record set by this kid was tarnished and he wanted Randall out of here so he could fume over it in peace.

"Fine then, have it your way." and with that, Randall walked over to Lillian.

"I will, lizard." Brendan remarked.

"Excuse me but considering that I won, maybe you should be referring to me as Mr. Boggs especially since I beat your girlfriend, I beat your game, doesn't that make me somewhat equal to you?"

"No Randall, it doesn't."

Lillian put a hand on his shoulder, a way of saying that they should just forget it and go, "Remember Brendan, win or lose, you gotta lay off us now."

He refused to look in her direction but still answered her, "I may be a lot of things but I am a guy of my word, you got it, no more fights from now on. You won…now get out of here already."

The two exchanged glances as they left the stadium, Brendan was still until he heard the large double doors close after them. He looked down at Candi, her crying continued but when she looked up, all he could make out of her sobs was the word sorry. He just glared, "Pathetic…this whole fight, all of that, a pathetic performance indeed."

He walked away from the female monster, "Do me a favor and clean yourself up. We have class tomorrow and I'm not going to be on homework collection for you."

Candi was able to slowly pull herself to her knees and then at least to her feet, despite the pain she felt, she still answered him, "O-K Brendan."

She just stood there but then immediately looked up when she heard the door, the boy was gone. Carefully taking one step at a time, Candi walked her way towards the special dressing room that she used as her bedroom. Once inside, she then went towards her mirror, stumbling forward using her arms to catch herself. Her blue eyes then met the gaze with that of her reflection, she was truly a mess. Besides the bruising she had received, her fur was all over the place, almost like she had walked through a tornado. She picked up a hairbrush as she carefully started with the fur upon her head, in hopes that she could smooth it out and fix it. Then her gaze shifted to that of her special wallpaper, the many pictures of fashion models and ladies from the magazines she saw on the shelf, images that she had glued and taped to every inch of wall she could find. She stared at the beauty that these human women possessed then she stared at herself in the mirror again. All she saw was a freak, some misshapen creature, unfit for humans and monsters alike.

"Why? Why can't I be beautiful? Why can't I be perfect…like them? Why can't I be perfect for him? Why?"

She kept shooting glances from her own reflection to the pictures, it was almost like she was hearing the mocking laughter of these perfect models in her head.

"Why?"

She kept asking herself over and over until finally she turned her back from the mirror, grabbing a small heavy jewelry box. The laughter was still there, still she could hear it as she then answered her own question, "Because…I'm not human!"

She screamed as she quickly turned towards the mirror, hurling the box at her reflection. The small box was heavy enough to shatter the mirror, causing some shards to fall off the frame and upon the floor, breaking into smaller pieces. She stared at the mirror or what was left of it then down at the shards, seeing the fragments of her reflection. This was probably the third mirror that Brendan would have to replace, probably giving him a good reason to be pissed off tomorrow if today's fight wasn't enough.


	13. Chapter 13

To put it simply, alot of stuff going on in this chapter, MI characters belong to Pixar, my characters are mine, quote from Linkin Park's "Burning in the skies."

Chapter Thirteen

_I used the deadwood to make the fire rise, the blood of innocence burning in the skies, I filled my cup with the rising of the sea, I poured it out in an ocean of debris. I'm swimming in the smoke of bridges I have burned, So don't apologize, I'm losing what I don't deserve..what I don't deserve._

_-Linkin Park_

"How is this possible? There is no way that HE could be the one that Amethyst was referring to! It's not possible!"

Stallion was fuming in both anger and confusion on what just happened when they were watching at the old coliseum. Celine just watched him from her recliner as the horse like monster paced back and forth in their living room. After watching him awhile longer, she finally decided to break her silence, "Okay…just calm down…exactly what was it that Amethyst had told you?"

"She told me that the one I needed to seek to help me find our killer is a monster by the name of Randall Boggs. She never told me of what he looked like, just a name, that was all. You know that I've always been pretty trustful of her judgment in the past but I'm honestly wondering about it now!"

"Well, we both heard him when he was smarting off at that kid. You heard him say that stuff of Mr. Boggs and the kid calling him Randall. It's obvious that he's our monster who needs to help us."

"We could be wrong, she could have meant another." Stallion pointed out.

"No offense but what are the odds of there being two monsters, both banished, with the name of Randall Boggs in this town?"

Stallion took what she said into consideration, true, it wasn't like the name was very common by monster standards.

"Keep in mind that what we saw was clearly a tense moment going on, I'm sure that he's not as misbehaved as he seems from what he had shown." Celine remarked.

"That is true but the fact that he accepted a fight with a lady still bothers me just a little…so now that leaves us with the next problem, how we need to approach him and explain of why I need his help."

The next morning, Candi was all dressed in her usual guise as she met Brendan at his mansion. Opening the door, he saw that she wasn't her usual happy go lucky self.

"What happened?"

She sighed as she began, "I…had a little accident with my mirror last night…we might need to buy a new one."

He knew exactly what had happened, "Damn it Candi! I know that you have your damn mood swings but seriously, I get tired of replacing your mirror just because you can't stand to stare at the freaking reflection!"

"I'm sorry." She started to say.

"No, don't be sorry! Just…look, I'll get a new mirror, okay? Please do me a favor and not break the next one?"

Candi nodded to him to show her understanding, Brendan looked over at the small clock on the coffee table, "We're wasting enough time, we need to get going." The two walked down the porch steps as they went over to the limo that was waiting on them and got in.

At school, Lillian and Morgana were talking about what the plan was for afterwards. "So, the house is on the way over near yours?" Morgana asked.

"It's on the way but we do have to be careful, it's an old place and we don't want to accidentally fall through a weakened floor or something like that."

"Is it a two story house? Any basements or attics in it?"

"It is two story but I've never gone up the stairs, I don't know if it has a basement though."

This intrigued Morgana, "Really, that's something we can check out when we go over today, depending on what's in there could make for some awesome shots."

Then Lillian noticed that Mark was just showing up to school along with the nasty Heather by his side. She couldn't help but watch him go by and unfortunately, she caught an ugly glare from Heather as the two passed. Morgana's eyes shot from the preppy couple then back to Lillian, remaining silent until the two were out of earshot, "So…let me guess…he's the heartthrob here and she's the nasty queen bee, right?"

"What gave it away?" Lillian asked her.

"She looks the part and you were staring at her guy there so either he had something on his clothes or you like him."

Lillian immediately started turning red as she then shifted her focus looking through her locker, "Was it that obvious?"

"Yeah, she looks like a bi-!"

"No, I mean about me liking Mark."

"Oh, so he does have a name…it was obvious to me but that's just me." The first bell rang, "We better get going."

Scourge sat quietly in the middle of one of the large exhibits of the old West Port zoo, surrounding him were the many dogs that he had rounded up and forced to serve him over the years. He studied the pack as he silently growled to himself, the numbers of his pack was gradually decreasing. Then again, that was to be expected, dogs had an average lifespan of twelve human years, some could live even up to fifth teen if they were lucky. Naturally some of the dogs had died over the years, either due to natural causes or due to Scourge's own anger. Others were picked up by the human forces that were known as animal control, a few had even made an escape out of Scourge's little cult as well. The sleeping pack wasn't as large as they used to be and it was clear that he would need to recruit new dogs but of course, you had to start them young. There are plenty of strays around this stupid town, Scourge thought, won't be too hard to get some new recruits…probably some puppies.

"Butch!" He called.

The Doberman perked up his head as he then sat up and approached his master.

"We're going to need some new recruits…our numbers are dwindling down and along with that, Halloween's coming up. The perfect night of the year to make a killing. Do me a favor and go out, do some scouting, let me know what mutts we can round up tonight but don't get picked up, you hear? You be careful!" The Doberman gave a slight yelp to show he understood and with that, ran out of the area.

Hours had passed and soon enough, the school day was over, the final bell rang, and the kids were free to do as they wanted. Lillian and Morgana started the walk that would take them past the musician's house…Randall's house. Lillian knew that Randall would keep to his word and hide himself from view but she couldn't help but feel nervous in some sense of the word. While they were walking, a white limo sped past them which caused the girls to both stop for a few minutes.

"Damn, whose limo was that?" Morgana asked.

"Remember that guy who bumped you? It belongs to Brendan, that's his limo."

"Boy, is he rich! You would think that he would be enrolled in private school since his folks clearly have the money!"

The conversation quickly shifted when the girls then spotted the house a block or two ahead. Getting in front of it, the two girls just stared at the large house. Lillian had been here plenty of times but never really took a good look at the house, the age of it, in fact the last time she had done that was when she had decided to enter it for the first time. She looked over at her friend, already seeing the excitement in her face, "Alright, let's go."

They took the steady footsteps up towards the porch, slowly opening the door just to enter inside darkness with some light filtering in from the room on the left.

"Wow…talk about old." Morgana remarked.

Lillian led the way as they entered the music room and to her relief, Randall was hidden from view.

"Well…this room according to many was the previous owner's old study, it was where he went to relax and play his music." she explained.

Morgana stared at the walls in a bit of confusion, "So were these marks always here?"

"They were when I had first came here." Lillian told her.

Morgana decided to snap a quick picture with no flash but when she looked at her camara's screen, she was disappointed, "Aw man, the lighting in here is terrible, without flash I can't get a good shot! I really didn't want to use flash if I didn't need to."

She started to readjust her camara settings as Lillian further scanned the room, she wasn't sure why but she had a feeling that Randall was disguised in the room still. After Morgana finished tweaking, she then tried again and started snapping shots all around the room. After she had finished taking her pictures, she then left the room as she went down the hallway and decided to take some pictures within the kitchen. Lillian figured that there was no harm in following her since it seemed that Randall had kept his agreement.

Butch was watching from around a corner as he spotted a small pup playing near the gutter. The puppy was a mix of what looked like two different shades of brown and black. He seemed to be alone which for right now would work to an advantage but when the Doberman approached the little mutt, the pup became nervous due to his presence and ran down a nearby alley. Butch followed in chase, he knew very well that due to the pup's size that he wasn't the fastest and keeping up with him would be easy. The pup then hid himself inside of a large cardboard box that Butch couldn't help but notice housed other pups inside equaling to a total of five altogether. When he was barely a foot away from the box, a low and deep growl had come from behind him. He turned his head to stare into the dark and furious eyes of a large brown dog, more than likely the mother. Butch lowered his head as a sign of submission to her but she didn't ease up, in fact she tried to attack him. He gave her some space when he noticed her immediately defending the pups, they were hers alright.

Butch decided to do a little bit of thinking on the matter, taking her size into consideration meant that the pups would more than likely grow to be her size or larger when grown, that would make them perfect pack members.

The female growled louder as a warning but when Butch showed no sign of moving, she bared her fangs in an attempt to scare him off. Without warning, the same pup that Butch chased tried to come out from behind his mother and started barking at Butch. Huh, he's pretty brave, the Doberman thought, for certain that pup would make a perfect recruit. Butch emitted a low bark which immediately spooked the pup resulting in his mother barking back. It was clear that if he didn't leave now that this female would try to fight him if she felt it necessary. The Doberman then took his leave as she watched him walk away, feeling relief that her pups were safe.

Butch soon changed his path from the alleys to the neighborhoods of the town. As usual, when he passed by a neighbor who owned a dog, he heard the usual barks since he was near their territory. It was all the same but one house he had passed by was silent, in fact, he could smell another dog but heard nothing out of them. He approached the fence that caged in the yard as he looked inside through the wooden planks, inside was some type of black dog. Judging from its body size and appearance, it was a husky mix and a young one at that, the dog had to have been about a little over a year. He was leashed to a dog house with a muzzle on him of all things, Butch gave a low yelp to attract his attention. The husky mix perked up his head and when he saw Butch immediately started wagging his tail, clearly glad to see a possible playmate just outside of his area.

The Doberman knew just how to get him out, he started to act playful as he whined out his desire to play with the fellow dog. The husky mix then ran up to the fence but whined in a sad tone, showing that he was stuck and couldn't come out. Butch scanned the fence when he had noticed that there were a few boards which appeared to be newer than the others. It was clear that the husky mix had a history of escaping from his yard thus explaining why he was tied down. Butch then stepped back as he then shot himself full force against the new boards and with quite some ease, they easily came flying off of the fence. Now inside of the enclosure, Butch took some time to examine the chain and collar that held the dog. While the chain was pure metal, the collar was not and was actually a cloth material made collar. Butch bit down on the collar as he started to chew and pull at it. It didn't take long for it to bust and more or less, the dog was freed. Butch then ran back through the hole in the fence as he whined a playful yelp for the other dog to follow. The husky mix seemed a little cautious but eagerly followed although he whined again, giving Butch a slight hint that if there was something that could be done about his muzzle. Butch studied the muzzle as he noticed that the straps were some kind of rubber, chewing through that would be way easier than removing the collar. One bite was all it took and the muzzle fell to the ground with a metallic clang. Butch, pretending to play with the husky mix, led him back to the old West Port zoo.

The girls had left the house after being there for about an hour, parting ways once they had reached Lillian's house. Back at the old mansion, Randall had reappeared on top of the piano after he was certain that the coast was clear and that the girls had gone home. Duing the time while Lillian was hanging out with her new friend, Randall had been observing them from the middle of the room, unseen to the both of them.

"Well…so that's Morgana…she's interesting…I guess."

It didn't take long for him to hear the lack of enthusiam within his own voice, he should be happy for Lillian. She had made herself a human friend on her own, this was a good thing but he just wasn't as excited for her as he should have been. Then he heard a strange crashing noise coming from down the hall. Immediately he blended in as he silently went over to see what had caused the noise, at best it was a rat but at worse it could be a kid.

"Darn, why in the hell do things like this have to happen to me?" a voice asked.

Randall recognized it immediately as he reappeared, "Weasel? What are you doing here?"

The small monster had one foot stuck in an old metal pot which he wasn't having much luck pulling off, "Ha, ha, it's funny really. Last night I kind of got chased around the neighborhood by some stupid guy's dog from down the street and I kind of lost him by jumping the fence into your old backyard here."

The reptile like monster stared with a look of astonishment, "What? So you spent the rest of the night hiding in my backyard? When did you get inside?"

"Just now but nobody saw me!" Weasel reassured him. Then the sudden silence made it clear to the small monster that now Randall wasn't paying attention to him any longer, "Uh…Randall, did something happen?"

"No, it's just that Lillian and her friend just left here a little while ago and the last thing I need is that she could have spotted you!"

Weasel looked at him, his head cocked to one side, "Wait, I thought that you were her friend?"

"Well, I am."

"So who's this other friend? We talking about a human friend?"

"No, we're talking about another monster", he spoke sarcastically, "Of course I'm talking about a human friend!"

"Oh boy." Weasel remarked.

Randall heard the tension in his voice, "Oh boy? What do you mean by that?"

"Randall, I hate to break it to you but I've lived here in the human world long enough to see that when it comes to teenagers, there are two things that can consume nearly all of their time. Two things that they can obsess over…either a boyfriend or girlfriend or a best friend."

"Wait, isn't that three things?"

Weasel glared at him, "I'm pretty sure that you know what I mean! I'm telling you, this new friend will be the end of your friendship with Lillian!"

Randall started laughing, "Yeah right, look, I'm happy that Lillian made herself another friend, okay? Besides, I was friends with her first, she will always have time for me."

"Really? You are happy for her? You don't sound very happy to me."

"Yeah…well…what do you know? The only human you've ever actually talked to was Lillian and Brendan!"

"Fine, be in denial, I'll just hang out here til dark when I can get myself home." Randall sighed, "Fine, you do that then."

When Morgana got home, she went straight to her room to see the final results of what her pictures looked like. She really didn't want to use the flash on her camera for the pictures but she didn't have much of a choice due to the horrible lighting of the place. After letting her computer load up, she connected her camera to it and pulled up the program window to see what she had. The pictures weren't her best but they were still pretty good, she slowly went from picture to picture to see which ones she would keep and which ones she would delete. When she got to the pictures of the piano, she couldn't help but notice that something foggy appeared in the shot.

"Well that's weird."

She zoomed in on the area that showed the top of the piano but figured that maybe it was dust on the lens. She went to another shot of the piano from a different angle but she saw the foggy object again but it wasn't quite in the same shape from another angle. Something seemed very strange about these particular pictures, Morgana opened one up in a basic paint program and decided to invert the colors. When she did that, her eyes got huge, now the strange foggy shape could be seen much more clearly and judging from the shape it held now, it was some kind of large lizard! Wait, there was no way that she could be seeing that, both her and Lillian were in the same room and neither one saw anything on top of the piano! She was pretty certain that if either one did then they would have noticed it. She had other shots of the piano, each one when she inverted the colors pulled up the strange reptile like shape on her screen within the shot. Her cat, Sabattha, jumped upon her desk as the cat stared at the screen of the computer as well then chose to lay down and snuggle against Morgana's arm. Just out of reaction, Morgana then started to pet the cat as she stared at the picture further, trying to make sense of what she was looking at.

"You see that?"

The cat didn't look up but started to purr due to being petted.

"Whatever that is…there's no way in hell that it's dust on my camera! No freaking way! Could be a ghost but then why would the ghost look like that? The guy who died there was a human, why would he take a shape of an animal…unless it's an animal he likes?"

She unplugged her camera as she turned it on, shuffling through the pictures but then she noticed that the fogginess could be seen upon her camara's digital screen as well, not as clearly as on the computer though. Morgana started to think this over because all of this was very strange, even by her standards. She had heard from other kids about being scared or possibly attacked by the ghost but yet Lillian told her that those were probably just stories because she had never seen a ghost. Now that she thought about it, Lillian acted a little weird when it came to the house, she didn't seem too eager to bring Morgana over to it. Her lack of enthusiam could have been for maybe two reasons, one, the fact that she had been over to the house and found it to not be that interesting anymore or two, she knew about this ghost in some way. Considering that Lillian was a new friend then it was hard to determine which option it could be.

"I guess we'll have to do some kind of research in some way, don't we?" she said, kind of directing her statement towards the cat.

Night had fallen upon the city which left Randall and Weasel not much to do, so it was off to Lillian's house. As before, the trek involving Weasel took much longer than it should have but soon enough they had arrived. Randall carefully climbed up the side of the house but when he reached the window, he couldn't help but notice that Lillian was talking on the phone. Despite this, he tapped his tail upon the window and waited but she didn't hear him. Weasel peered up at Randall from down below, he then noticed that the reptile like monster climbed down from the house.

"Are we going through the front again?" Weasel asked him.

Randall just glared for a bit, "Lillian's busy right now…we should probably go out looking for food anyway."

"Busy doing what?"

"She's talking on the phone." Then he noticed the dinosaur like monster's smirk,"What?"

"What did I tell you? It's barely starting, first it will be her constantly on the phone then she'll be hanging out with the girl a whole lot. Won't be long before you become a distant memory."

"No it won't", Randall told him, "Look, this is just temporary. Once Lillian and Morgana become more stable in their friendship then she'll find some way to divide the time between the two of us. Besides, Halloween is coming up and this will be my first year spending it with Lillian and this new friend is not going to change that!"

"Sure…whatever you say, just keep lying to yourself if that makes you feel better."

"Do you want to get something to eat or not!" Randall yelled.

"Yes I do, okay, so where are we going?"

Randall thought it over, "How about we swipe ourselves some pizza."

"Pizza sounds good to me."

The two monsters made the trek over to the little pizza place around downtown and waited in the shadows. The owner of the place was closing up and since he had leftovers, he always tossed them out in a bag outside once he had closed up. Randall grabbed the trash bag out of the dumpster as he allowed Weasel to get on his back and then went up the side of the building so that way they could enjoy their meal from the roof. The two opened the bag as they decided to eat from whatever they had.

"I don't understand why humans waste food sometimes." Weasel remarked.

Randall shrugged, "Well, it's a pizza parlor and I'm sure his customers wouldn't want to eat cold leftovers from the day before. That's probably why because when Lillian gets pizza, they always put what's left over in the fridge for another time so not all humans are wasteful."

"If I owned a place like that, I would just take what didn't sell home and have it for myself."

"Then you would end up with no space in your fridge within a week. Pizza's nice but you can't eat it all the time."

Weasel swallowed a piece, "Comparing to rats, I would definitely eat it all the time."

Randall stuck out his tongue in a response, "Okay…there are plenty of food places around here, why do you resort to eating rats sometimes?"

"You're a large monster so access to food is no problem for you. I'm flipping short, I'm not built to reach a doorknob without jumping so it's harder for me!"

"Yeah, I guess but I'm sure that even you can find some way to manage."

Then suddenly a large horse like monster landed upon the roof, catching the attention of Randall and Weasel.

"Uh…we got company." Weasel whispered nervously.

Randall looked at the new monster strangely, "I don't recognize him, do you?"

"No, he might be newly banished…either that or he just arrived here."

Then the monster slowly made his way over towards them, Weasel then lowered his head, "Should we eat and run or what?"

"Calm down, if he tries anything then we'll run."

The monster stopped right in front of them, "Are you Randall Boggs?"

"Uh", Weasel started, "I'm not but he is."

Randall glared at him, it was obvious that this new monster wasn't asking Weasel. Randall turned to look at him, "Yes, that's me although if you don't mind me asking, who are you and how do you know my name?"

"My name for now is not of any importance but what does matter is that you are Randall Boggs."

"Okay, no offense to you but since you know my name then I feel that I have the right to ask who you are. It's not an everyday thing when some random monster who looks like you were part of some little girl's nightmare asks for me by name."

"Excuse me", the monster questioned, "Some part of a little girl's nightmare? Allow me to assure you that despite my appearance, at the very least show some form of respect when you are addressing me!"

Now Randall could tell that this monster clearly had an attitude and judging from his manner of speak, he was way older than Randall, probably around a similar age to Waternoose.

"Yeah, well I was raised that respect is something you earn, not something you demand, pinto!" Weasel started to get up, preparing to run in case this new monster tried anything strange.

"If you honestly feel that you need a name that badly then fine, you shall address me as Stallion and I am here for one purpose and that is to stop the murders that have been going on in this city. I was told by other sources that I needed the help of another monster by the name of Randall Boggs and since you clearly are the owner of said name then I have to seek your help."

Randall stood up, trying to take in what he just heard, "Wait a minute…you heard from somewhere that you need my help in order to stop Scourge?"

"Is Scourge our murderer?" Stallion asked him.

"Well, yeah, any monster in West Port could tell you that but where did you hear all of this about me?"

Stallion was starting to find this conversation annoying, "If you want answers then you need to follow me, a friend of mine has a vehicle that we can use to transport you to our place of operations."

"Why can't you just give us a ride?" Weasel asked.

"I am NOT going to do that, honestly! My friend is parked in the vehicle down below in the alley, she will take you where you need to go."

"Okay, so is this friend human?" Randall asked him.

Stallion only repeated a little louder this time, "As I said, come with us if you want answers!"

Randall and Weasel peered down into the alley and sure enough, a black car was parked down below. When the two turned to face Stallion, he had already taken flight. Randall started to climb down until Weasel grabbed his hand, "Are you crazy? What if this is some kind of trap?"

"Weasel, somehow I don't think so especially if his buddy down there is human. You don't have to go but I am."

The two reached the bottom as Randall opened up the back door to the car, they got in but after Weasel closed the door, it automatically locked. He started to panic until he heard a woman's voice, "Everything's fine…we're just taking some precautions, we'll arrive to our destination in about a half hour, alright? So just relax and enjoy the ride." They could feel the car move as it took off and started down the road that would exit them out of West Port.


	14. Chapter 14

For those who enjoy reading, my apologies for making you wait for an update for quite some time but we have a new chapter so at least the wait wasn't as long. All MI related property belongs to Pixar/Disney, my characters belong to me, lyrics featured are property of Linkin Park.

Chapter Fourteen

_Yeah, I am not a pattern to be followed, the pill that I'm on is a tough one to swallow. I'm not a criminal, not a role model, not a born leader, I'm a tough act to follow. I am not the fortune and the fame nor the same person telling you to forfeit the game, I came in the ring like a dog on a chain and I found out that the underbelly is sicker than it seems. _

_-Linkin Park_

Randall watched the scenery go by as he noticed that they had soon left the city limits and now were entering the country side. Weasel had eventually worried himself so much that in order to calm him down, Randall suggested to him to take a nap until they got to their location. The small dinosaur was snoring as he had laid on his side in the passenger seat. He then shifted his glance from the window to their driver, all he could see was the back of her head and her black hair. He then tried to see if he could get a look at her face in the rearview mirror but all he could see were her eyes focusing on the road.

"So…are you friends with this Stallion monster?"

He saw her eyes glance over to his reflection in the mirror for a bit before she answered, "I'm not sure if he would use that term but we at least consider ourselves partners in this."

"And by this, you're referring to you two trying to track down Scourge?"

"Look, I can't give you much details in here but it's not so much him specifically, it's more like monsters like him."

Randall was slowly taking this in, "So are you guys some kind of undercover operation?"

"Buddy, we're not from the government if that's what you mean…we're already here so let's just wait til we get inside for more conversation."

Randall then looked outside as he noticed a large house with an open garage, the woman pulled the car in and pressed a small button on a little device that then closed the door.

"We're here."

Then the doors unlocked as Randall woke up Weasel, "Get up, we've arrived."

The two monsters cautiously got out as they then met their driver at a set of double doors leading inside, "This way", she told them. Entering inside the living room, they saw the monster from before had been waiting for them as his human companion took a seat in a recliner.

"Alright, we came with you guys so now are we going to get some answers?" Randall asked.

"Rudeness is not a charming quality." Stallion criticized him.

Celine kept her composure as she decided to explain, "The two of us for the past couple of years have been traveling from place to place when there is word of crimes that sometimes baffle even the most intelligent and highest of authorities. A good majority of the time, these unusual crimes that happen are normally the result of a monster that was banished from your world deciding to ignore the dangers and let loose their fury in the most violent ways possible. We've taken down and defeated a couple of monsters over the time in hopes that others such as yourself who are just minding your own business will be able to breathe easier once tyrants like Scourge are gone."

Randall was impressed but still wondered, "So, since it seems clear that you two can handle yourselves then why do you need my help? Why were you looking for me?"

Celine continued, "A monster who has helped us before by the name of Amethyst had told us that we would need the help of a monster by the name of Randall Boggs in order to take down this killer. As to why we would need your help, she didn't say but she insisted on how important it was that we found you first."

"So how does this Amethyst know?"

"She had a vision in relation to you."

Randall started laughing, "Okay…so she had a vision? What was she, psychic? I don't know if you realize but even us monsters aren't all supernatural so I find this hard to believe."

"There are many powers and abilities of monster kind that have slowly died out over the years although considering your age, I should have expected this kind of ignorance from you." Stallion remarked.

Randall glared at him, "So that's just a nicer way of saying I'm stupid, right?"

Weasel tried to ease the tension, "Listen, I'm sure that this is very important to you two but we know better than to cross Scourge, it's not pretty let me tell you. We thank you for all of this but we're not interested."

Randall then got down to his level and whispered, "What do you mean we're not interested?"

"Could you give us a minute", then Weasel pulled Randall aside, "Look, it's obvious that these two think they're superheroes and maybe aren't all there. The last thing you need to do is work with them in order to get yourself killed faster!"

"You heard them, this isn't their first time, they've got the experience and while it sounds a little crazy…maybe they're not joking about this whole finding me thing. I mean, I want to take Scourge down because all he's doing is endangering us! What if this is actually the ticket I need in order to do it! They've defeated other monsters and they can help me defeat Scourge too!"

"You can't be serious! This is a bad idea, a very, VERY bad idea! All that's going to happen is that he'll have your head on a platter and they'll probably run for it! Besides, Mr. Stallion over there doesn't seem to like you that much although your attitude isn't helping!"

"I'm rude? What about him?"

Weasel peered over at Stallion for a minute before turning back to Randall, "Well, he's definitely older and he's probably from a generation of mind your tongue sort of thing. He's probably being like that because of how young you are which is another reason why working with these two is a bad idea. The two of you is a dog fight waiting to happen!"

Stallion decided to interrupt, "My apologies but have you reached a decision?"

Weasel turned back to him, "We're working on that, just another minute please?"

"Weasel, if you want nothing to do with this then that's fine but I just feel that this isn't random luck here." Randall turned his gaze back towards Stallion, "I'll do it, I'll join you two as long as you can guarantee me that we can stop Scourge."

"A wise decision, a very wise one indeed. Now for the next few weeks, I expect you to be training under my supervision." Stallion explained.

"Training", Randall remarked, "Look, I can take care of myself, I just need a little more help when it comes to Scourge."

"Monsters like Scourge can not be taken lightly besides, you more than likely haven't been in true combat. The little spat between you and that lady the other night is nothing to boast about."

"Wait, you saw that? How did you find out about that fight?"

Stallion ignored his question and continued, "If there is something I have learned of all of the years that I've been here, it's this. The longer you've been banished, the more that you rely upon your instincts and a monster that puts his full faith into that and that alone is a true threat. If you want to stop this Scourge, then you will have to learn how to think on his level and play at his game as you would put it. For the next few weeks, we will train and on all Hallow's Eve, we'll track him down to a secluded area and take him down. More than likely, if the killings have stopped for now it means that he's biding his time until then when the streets will be filled with children."

"All Hallow's Eve? You mean Halloween? Isn't there some way that we can take care of him before then?"

Stallion gave Randall a stern look, "As I said, we need the next few weeks in order to prepare you and no later than that, that particular night will be fine." When it became clear that the plan was set, Celine got up from the recliner, "It won't be dark forever, it's best if I get you two back to West Port before daylight."

After the two were dropped back off at the old mansion, Weasel couldn't believe what he had heard before. "So you're actually serious about this?"

Randall didn't respond to the small monster as he followed right behind him, "Well…you gonna play the quiet game with me or answer?"

When it became clear that silence was all he was going to get, the little monster got angry, "Fine, you want to nearly commit suicide with this then be my guest but I'm not tagging along with you on these training sessions, you volunteered for this so it's your problem, not mine!"

Randall then heard the sound of Weasel's feet scraping across the floor boards then he heard the slam of the back door. He turned his head to look behind himself just staring at the doorway for a bit then he turned his gaze to stare down at the piano, resting his hands upon the top as the dust seemed to stick to him like some kind of static. He couldn't help but release a sigh…maybe not quite one of relief but just a simple sigh, what he had been wanting to do was now going to be a reality. This wasn't just him ranting to himself of Scourge's antics and trying to hold his own against him if the chances came but for once, taking the opportunity and take the wolf down…maybe even once and for all. He knew that one of two things would come out of this, he could succeed and that could be it or worse, he could fail and lose a lot more than just losing to Scourge. Then there was his friendship with Lillian, he really didn't want to pull her into this if he could help it. Despite how strongly she felt as well, he couldn't bring her into this, the risks were too high. Maybe for the while her friendship with this girl Morgana could work out for him after all, if Lillian became so preoccupied with her new friend then she wouldn't notice him when he was partaking in this training of Stallion's.

"Stallion", Randall couldn't help but smirk, "Something tells me that what he just showed me is actually his charming side."

He knew that the two of them may not get along but right now, he needed Stallion's help if he wanted to even have a chance of accomplishing this. For now, he would have to grin and bear it but once the plan was executed then he wouldn't have to worry about dealing with the older monster after that.

Butch sat on his rightful place across from the small lot of scruffy dogs who sat quietly and fearfully while Scourge walked past them. He was examining them, seeing which of these mutts were the most worthy to be a part of the pack. The black husky mix had caught his attention, Scourge grabbed the dog by the chin, staring deep into his eyes for a bit before regaining his composure.

"You really knew a winner with this one", Scourge remarked, "He's got the right blood to be able to keep up in this pack but I was hoping that you would have found us some younger dogs than this."

Butch emitted a small series of growls and low barks, explaining of the mother stray dog and her puppies that he had encounterd much earlier.

Scourge listened to him, a dark smile forming across his face upon hearing about this, "How old did the pups look?"

Butch once again answered his remark with another series of yips and barks which led to Scourge frowning a bit, "So she did see you?"

Butch lowered his head, almost like he was sadly reporting that the female did in fact see him and was wary of him.

Scourge took this into consideration, "Did you leave when she made it clear?"

Butch once again answered his master which then led to Scourge taking all of this in.

"We might be in luck then, if you went ahead and left her without showing to be too much of a threat then she might decide to stay where she's at. We'll give it a week or two and then you'll show me where you last seen her. By then the pups will be a little older and more than ready to leave mommy behind."

He then shifted his focus to the new recruits, knowing very well that they could understand him perfectly.

"All of you have been chosen to partake in what would be considered natural for you. As canines, you are natural pack animals…well I'm the leader of this pack and as such, you are now my new members and you will respect me. Anyone who tries to rebel against my authority or even try to claim it for their own, you will be very sorry if you even make such an attempt. Understand that your life before you came here is gone, we are not pets here and if I have to, I will beat out of all of you that damn mentality!"

Then he noticed that one of the dogs was hunched over a little, he stood in front of the dog as he glared at it.

"What's wrong, missing your home already? You're free to leave but I can't guarantee that you'll make it out of here if you do."

The dog stared at Scourge with a slight bit of relief because all he heard out of all of that was that he was given the option to leave. The stray started to take a step but suddenly Scourge quickly slammed his claws into the dog's stomach, blood hitting the floor. The poor animal in pain couldn't help but collapse but then Scourge quickly grabbed him by the head, gave it a quick twist and released the animal. He broke the dog's neck which resulted in it dying instantly, the other dogs nearby quickly stood up to avoid the blood that now started to flow and form a puddle underneath the body.

"As I was saying, you try to resist and this is what's going to happen because understand one thing if you can understand me at all. I'm not like you, I may look like you, I may be able to easily understand and speak with you but I am nothing like you. I'm the one thing that your precious humans fear, the one thing that exists only in their nightmares but can kill them within their reality. I am what fear is all about so don't think that for one second that I'm going to be your playmate because here, only one leader exists and that is me!"

The black husky mix stared at Butch, understanding that the Doberman was clearly the right hand within this pack and now fully understanding just what his fate was going to be. Butch on the other hand tried to avoid his glance, feeling that he had brought in another within this fold just like how he was brought in by not being given a choice.

Scourge decided that it was best to let the dogs get better aquainted, "We'll pick this up tomorrow, you better rest up tonight because you're going to be in a hell of training and preparing for the one night that is my favorite…Halloween."

After Scourge had left to retire within his chambers, the husky mix approached Butch with a dark glare seen within his eyes. He now fully understood of why he was brought here and didn't see Butch as any friend to him. Butch just glared back until the husky mix stood up and decided to find a place within the large room to sleep.

Another school day, another class which for some wouldn't be considered the most ideal…biology. Some students really have a tense fear of this class because of the experiments or even the dissections. If you were a big animal lover then for certain it made you cringe a little but today's experiment was a little easier to deal with. The lady teacher wearing her lab coat pulled up on the projector a strange picture of some kind of bug thing.

"Daphnia magna, also known as the water flea."

A few low murmers of eww and gross could be heard within the room.

"Oh let's behave please, this isn't a normal flea like the kind you find on animals. To put it lightly, it's like a crustacean that lives within fresh water. Now, these water fleas are used to test the dangers and toxicity of certain chemicals and products that we use or encounter. Due to the sensitivity of these creatures, they are considered pretty ideal for this type of testing. Today we're going to test the tolerance level of these within a very common substance…caffeine. There are plenty of products that have caffeine and I'm sure that some of you who are big soda or coffee drinkers probably ingest the stuff quite regularly. Today we'll get into groups of two, I'll come around and fill the five petri dishes with your water fleas and by following the directions on your worksheet, you will form a hypothesis and put into your petri dishes the correct amount of pond water and caffeine for each dish. Please make sure to use the tape and marker to label your dishes from one through five so that way you'll know which dish has what in it. Also, please do not try and fool around with this, we don't have enough for you to redo the experiement if you mess up."

When it became clear that the students were free to choose their partners, it didn't take long before the typical pairs were formed and that the usual lab partners decided on who they were going to do the experiment with. Normally, Lillian would be left being unable to find a partner which resulted in her working alone or the teacher deciding on who she worked with. This time though she didn't actually have to worry about that since Morgana also had the same biology class with her. After their teacher had put into their petri dishes the little fleas, the next thing was for them to look over the worksheet and put the right measurements of pond water and caffeine. Heather and Mark were also starting their measurements as well or at least Mark was. Lillian couldn't help but notice that apparently Mark was doing all of the work.

"Hey Lillian."

She turned to see that Morgana was pointing to the third dish, "Some of the fleas are already dying."

She looked at the same petri dish for a bit, "How many of the fleas were alive before we added the caffeine?"

"Uh", Morgana looked back towards their worksheet, "About twenty were alive originally."

"Okay, and we already see about three of them dead, we'll give them five minutes and then see how many are truly left."

Mark at his lab table wasn't sure how their experiment was going, "Hey Heather, how much of the pond water do we put in?"

"I don't know." She told him as she was busy sending text messages.

"Well…could you check the paper?"

Heather glared at him, "Uh, could you? You know that this class isn't my best so it's very important as my boyfriend that you make sure that I pass it!"

"You would probably do better in it if you actually participated and paid attention."

She shot him another dirty look, he shrugged, "I'm just saying, no reason to get mad at me."

"Fine! I'll participate!"

Heather grabbed the eyedropper and filled the whole dropper with caffeine then she squeezed the amount into the petri dish that they were working on.

"There! I'm participating! Now stop complaining and do your part of this stupid lab!"

Mark couldn't help but panick a little, "Heather, I think you put in the caffeine and way too much of it! We weren't supposed to put that much of the caffeine into the third dish!"

"Oh…well, you made me mad, you made me put in too much of the stuff besides how do we know it's too much anyway!"

"Because all the little fleas are dying!"

"They're fleas, we probably did a lot of dogs a huge favor!"

Mark rolled his eyes, "They are not those kind of fleas, the teacher had explained that before we started. See, I told you that you don't pay attention!"

"Oh shut up!" she yelled at him.

It was obvious that everybody heard her which naturally drew the attention of the teacher, "Heather, Mark, is there a problem?"

"Yeah…we accidently commited a flea homicide here."

"What?"

Mark explained, "What I mean is that Heather put in too much of the caffeine which is kind of killing our fleas for the third dish here."

"You got me frustrated!" she protested again.

"Let me check on how many water fleas that I have left, alright? You guys will have to use them to redo that petri dish and please, pay more attention to the instructions for this lab!"

Morgana couldn't help but kind of giggle, "Man, she's clearly high matience."

"Yeah, pretty much and the worst part is that she doesn't like doing any of the work for the experiments. I was paired up with her for one lab, I had to do the whole dang thing by myself!"

"She gets points taken off for that, doesn't she?" Morgana asked her.

"She does get some points taken off but what mostly drags down her grade in this class is that when we have to write a small lab report for these experiments, she doesn't have much to write because as I said, she doesn't do any of the work during the labs so she doesn't have much to write down to began with."

Morgana looked into the petri dish, "I think we can go ahead and start counting the dead fleas now."

Back at Mark's table, the teacher was fortunate enough to replace the contents of the third petri dish.

"So, do you want me helping again!" Heather remarked.

"No…I'll finish the lab, you just write down the results of what we're doing, okay?"

"That's fine, I can do that."

The majority of the class finished their experiment a little early but Mark and Heather didn't finish until the bell was about to ring. Right around when the students were leaving, the teacher announced to them, "For our next class we're going to discuss what we did today and next week the lab report for this will be due, don't forget!"

Before Heather left the class, the teacher called to her, "Heather, will you come here for a bit?"

"Yes?" She asked with a bright smile on her face.

"Wipe the smirk off please Heather, we need to talk about your participation or more lack of participation if you will. You see, if you want to do well in this class then it would help if you did actually take part in the labs."

"Well, they're hard."

"Doesn't matter, for this next lab report I expect you to write it well AND without any help from Mark. If you can't do that then you're not going to pass, understood?" Heather gave a blank look, "Yes maam", and with that said, she left the classroom while mumbling under her breath that the teacher was a bitch.


	15. Chapter 15

In this chapter, we get to see if all that training pays off or if Randall and Stallion's plan fails...you will have to read to see...MI characters belong to Pixar/Disney, my characters are mine, and lyrics property of Linkin Park.

Chapter Fifthteen

_God bless us everyone, We're a broken people living under loaded gun and it can't be out fought, It can't be outdone, It can't out matched, It can't be outrun, No!_

_-Linkin Park_

It was the night before Halloween and as agreed, Randall had undergone immense training with Stallion's jurisdiction. He couldn't believe that the month had finally passed and tomorrow night was when they were going to enact the plan. Of course, it wasn't like that whole month of training was the easiest. Due to Randall's attitude and Stallion's old ways, the two did have their fights and arguments. At the moment, Randall was sparing against an old punching bag that Celine had hung up on a strong branch of a tree. It was nearly three thirty in the morning and he couldn't help but give out a yawn. The reptile like monster was exhausted but when he started to slow down to take a slight break, Stallion would repeatedly command for him to continue.

"We don't have time to lay about! Continue with your training!" he instructed.

Randall was really on edge and finally had it, "Okay, you know what? I don't know about you but I really want to take a break!"

"Have you forgotten that tomorrow is the night that we have been doing all of this training for? I need to know and make sure that you can and will be ready to face Scourge on if it comes to that!" Stallion told him sternly.

"Oh I'm ready, more than ready but seriously, I'm practically dying here! We've been training for a whole freaking month, I'm sure that one little day isn't going to kill us!"

Stallion was not having it tonight and suddenly Randall saw his eyes show a flash of light, almost like a flicker. He rubbed his eyes because the instant of the light did bother him but after he looked up, all he saw was darkness. A bright spotlight shined down upon him from above but he couldn't see Stallion or even the area that he was in.

"What the hell?" Randall asked. He knew that there was no way that this could be real.

"So…tell me, do you honestly have what it takes to take on any kind of attack that Scourge may have in store for you?"

Randall couldn't see Stallion but he heard him, "Okay…what's going on? What did you do?"

"Answer me! Do you?"

Randall didn't want to answer him, he was getting pretty pissed off and not being able to see where he was sure wasn't helping. Then suddenly the darkness disappeared as he saw that he was inside of the factory.

"Do you have the courage and maturity that you clearly lacked from long ago?" Stallion's voice asked.

Randall could hear voices as he walked from the empty room to down the hallway. He saw that the office to the CEO was open and when he peaked inside, there he was. He saw himself sitting in a chair across a desk from Henry J. Waternoose. He listened to the conversation and then realized what he was seeing…it was the day that he came to Waternoose to tell him of his idea. The day that he had shown him the idea of the scream extractor! Randall walked into the room to see that surprisingly neither his other self or Waternoose even noticed him.

"You clearly didn't have the courage back then."

Randall turned his head to the right to see that there was Stallion standing next to him. "Alright, what's going on?"

Stallion looked over towards him, "My family has possessed a technique known to many as the glaring technique. It's ability plays as a type of hypnosis and allows I, the user, to enter into your subconscious and tap into your dreams, hopes, and even nightmares if I wish. This was how I collected screams when I used to work here."

Randall wasn't sure if he heard right, "You used to work here at MI?"

"Yes…I did."

Then darkness entered the room and soon it all changed, Randall looked to see that there was a much younger version of Stallion and Waternoose. The two were there with a little girl, clearly a different little girl than the one that Randall had kidnapped four years ago.

"We were young those fifty or so years ago…I was doing some overtime and Henry was watching me do my work…the child had simply wandered into the factory, it took us nearly all night to find her and send her back…I felt that maybe things would be just fine but back then…you could say that the CDA was a little crooked."

Randall looked to see that another scene was now playing, CDA agents broke into an apartment and took the younger Stallion away. Then he saw the younger Waternoose, talking and apparently thanking the head agent at that time for their work.

"I thought that he was a friend to me because we had grown up together but…money and power changed that…he feared that news of the child escaping into the factory would ruin his new position with the board and paid off the CDA who were in charge at that time to take care of the only other witness which was me."

Randall wasn't sure what to say but then he heard him speak again, "The fact that you have been sent here has shown me that after all of these years, nothing has changed."

"Waternoose didn't banish me here, you know."

"I know…but he may have had plans to do so…after all, if your machine was successful then why would he allow you to take credit…as he's shown, he would want that glory for himself."

Randall then understood, "So…do you think that if we take down Scourge that maybe, you might get some information about Waternoose? Is that why you do this? That maybe one day if you find a way back that you can go after him? I don't know about you but revenge won't change what happened, you know."

He turned to him, "Just allow me to worry about my demons and you worry about yours."

Then suddenly Randall opened his eyes as he saw Stallion standing in front of him, they were back in the forest.

"Celine can drive you back to the city." Stallion told him as he walked away.

"Hey Stallion, next time…don't do that, it's a little creepy." Randall told him. Stallion stopped for a bit, "Very well", then he continued on towards the house.

The young puppy was hiding as he watched the shadows of his mother and Scourge fighting. His brothers and sister had already been grabbed by the other large dogs that came with the wolf like monster. The small brown and black puppy hid and was scared, then he heard a loud yelp of pain, the shadow of his mother fell to the ground.

Scourge was panting, "Damn, did she put up one hell of a fight! Definitely a fighter!"

He looked over to the pack members but he saw that only four had puppies in their mouths.

"Wasn't there another one? Where the hell is he?" he yelled.

The puppy could only hear voices and dog whimpers as he heard a loud yell, "Don't just fucking stand there…find the damn thing!"

The puppy out of fear ran out of his hiding spot and underneath a dumpster that was a ways down the alley. He heard the sound of the dogs sniffing and barking around but soon it sounded like they weren't as near.

"Fine, forget the damn mutt! We got these four and the female here will be useful for breeding when she's older, let's get out of here before anybody else notices!"

The puppy listened intently as he saw the shadows upon the wall disappear, when he felt that it was safe, he came out from underneath. Running to the body of his mother, she wasn't moving at all. The puppy pawed at her face and whimpered as he waited for her to get up but she didn't, he pushed at her with his snout but still nothing. He kept pushing harder and harder until he could feel something wet on his fur, it was clearly the blood of his mother. The puppy started to whimper and cry as he laid himself down near her head and fell asleep, not wanting to leave her there.

About an hour later, Randall was dropped off at a corner and he was heading back towards his house by rooftop but when he jumped across one alley, he stopped. He smelled not only something dead and blood but also, he caught Scourge's scent as well. He went back and looked down upon the alley, he could see a dog at the bottom with a small puppy near it. Not sure if they were both dead, he climbed down and slowly walked up to the body. The puppy woke up when he felt the shadow of the monster and immediately started growling and barking. Randall tried to reach a hand towards him but the puppy tried snapping and backed himself into the brick wall. The monster tried to not push his luck as he then placed a hand near the nose of the adult dog, no air which meant that chances are she was dead. Looking around, he clearly didn't see any other puppies but it was obvious…Scourge was recruiting new dogs for his pack and he was going for puppies as well. Randall approached the puppy and picked up the shivering little one, "Hey there little guy." The puppy immediately buried himself into Randall's body, feeling comfort from the warmth. Holding the puppy close in his second set of arms, Randall climbed up the alley wall and continued on his way back towards his home.

It was nearly a month of waiting but it was finally here, Halloween! Some students were the type to dress up for this day at school but most stuck to waiting for afterwards. With Morgana's help, Lillian came up with a red riding hood costume with a punk twist. Morgana though decided to dress goth but more like a Victorian style or even a slight bit of Lolita. As they walked down the sidewalk with pillow sacks in hand, Lillian couldn't help but notice that they had just passed by the old musician's place. Her thoughts went to that of Randall, wondering of what he had been up to especially since she hadn't seen him. In fact, since she started being friends with Morgana, she hadn't seen Randall at all, she had tried a couple of times to come over to his place late at night but she wouldn't find him.

Morgana noticed that she wasn't looking too happy, "Hey, anything wrong?"

"Huh? Oh no, I'm fine, it's nothing."

That was another lie, one of the few lies that Lillian had to come up with because the fact was that she couldn't tell her new friend about her best friend at all. Being friends with both people and monsters really had a lot of downsides.

Randall and Stallion weren't the only ones getting ready for this night. Back at Monsters Incorporated, Sulley along with Mike and Fungus were pulling up Kevin's door. His closet door was their best way into West Port and after talking it over, they decided to go ahead and enter the human world on Halloween night. Kevin assured them that they wouldn't be noticed due to everyone being in costume. Sulley pulled off his tie and put it on the small desk, he wouldn't be needing it where he was going. Mike pressed a button which then turned on the door, "Ready", he asked as he placed his hand upon the door knob. Sulley's nod reassured them that they were ready so opening the door, the three entered to see that Kevin was reading a comic book in his room.

He looked up to see them, "Man, finally, I thought that you guys would come sooner!"

"I already explained to you Kevin that we have a very small time window in order to come here."

"Whatever, just come on."

Kevin opened his bedroom window but while Mike and Fungus could easily climb out, it was obvious that Sulley couldn't.

"Uh…I guess we'll sneak you out through the glass doors in our living room then."

Sulley followed Kevin as they carefully snuck over, within about ten minutes Sulley was outside and joined up with Mike and Fungus as they decided to began their search. Randall and Stallion were also out searching the city, looking for any signs that Scourge was nearby but so far they weren't turning up anything.

Lillian and Morgana weren't doing too bad on candy collection but then they saw Candi and Brendan.

"Hi you guys! Getting loads of candy?" Candi happily asked.

Morgana started to laugh, "What's wrong Brendan, couldn't find a scarier costume?"

Brendan, unlike the girls, was not in costume at all or even wearing at least some face make up.

"I don't dress up, not into this kiddie stuff when it comes to this Halloween crap!" He sternly explained.

Morgana noticed that Candi was dressed up as a fairy and a very detailed costume to boot, "Wow! Where did you buy your costume?"

"Uh…online! My aunt did my makeup, she works in the movies and does those special effect stuff!"

Lillian knew that wasn't the case, apparently Candi chose to use her transforming ability for her costume. It definitely made a costume more realistic and believeable.

Randall and Stallion had made it to the parking garage of the mall, they heard screams when they came near here and decided that they may have found Scourge.

"I'll search the top level, you start from the first level and work your way up." Stallion advised.

The horse like monster took flight as Randall ran towards the first level. At the same time, Sulley along with Mike and Fungus were also here because they heard the same scream but out of the corner of their eye, they saw something run towards the parking garage.

"Come on!" Sulley commanded as they went after the running figure.

Randall ran from the bottom level and up onto the second but so far he hadn't seen Scourge at all, in fact there wasn't even trace of a scent. Then his fronds stood on end, somebody was coming, turning to face whatever it was he saw running around the corner…Sulley, Mike, and Fungus? The three monsters froze about a few feet from where Randall stood.

"Randall", Mike said then he went into accusation mode, "Ah-ha! What did I tell you guys? I knew it, I knew that he had something to do with the kid's deaths! What did I say but no, nobody believes the one eyed monster! I knew it!"

Randall was still trying to take all of this in, "Wasoski? Sullivan? Even you Fungus, how did you guys get here? Why are you even here?"

"We're here to stop your plan of killing kids, that's why we're here!" Mike shouted at him.

"What? I'm not the one killing anybody! How did you guys even found out about that?"

"Ha, like we would tell you lizard boy!"

"You don't understand, it's not me it's-!"

Then suddenly, what appeared to be a black mustang went skidding across the entrance onto the second level and crashed into the concrete wall behind the monsters. Walking from around the corner was none other than Scourge who appeared to be alone, "Damn sports cars, they never last", he remarked but then he noticed not only Randall but the three other monsters. Sulley remembered seeing his picture from the files that the CDA had on him, he was one of the ones banished due to contamination! It was a pretty huge shock to see him there, this monster had been banished nearly ten years ago and yet, there he was, standing there alive and well.

"The hell? Who the fuck are you three? Don't tell me that we have more banished dumb asses, damn it, we don't need anymore than what we have already!"

Trying to be polite, Sulley decided to answer him, "My name is James P. Sullivan and I'm the current CEO of MI. We're here because the CDA is searching for a monster who apparently has been killing children in this city."

Scourge listened intently as he answered back, "So…let me get this straight, they sent you bastards to come and get me?"

"Depends, are you the one who was doing the killings?"

The wolf like monster gave a smug smile, "Yeah, I'm the one and if you think that I'm going to turn into some whiny little bitch like the reptile back there then you're wrong! Why the hell would the CDA care? Is it because what I'm doing is hurting your little 'production' that goes on at your factory, Mr. CEO!"

Sulley glared back, "It's because what you're doing is considered a danger to not only the city of Monstropolis but also the monster world. I'm not sure if you're aware but if you were to be caught by human authorities, what's stopping them from getting out of you information of where you came from? I would think that if they had to, they would use force if necessary."

Scourge shrugged, "Who said that they would need to use force, I've got nothing to lose by telling them that! I see no good from protecting these damn humans or even befriending them. Doing that makes you weak but then again, Randall knows that weakness too well, don't you?"

Sulley turned to see that Randall didn't look very happy from that statement, "Keep Lillian out of this! You can't assume that just because I've protected her from you makes me weak!"

"No, I'm pretty damn sure that it does! How many times have I whupped your reptilian ass because you were keeping that brat safe!"

"At least I have someone to fight for, what do you have? A pack of mutts that obey you without question but you don't give a damn about!" Randall yelled.

"Dogs are loyal animals, feed them and they understand who the master is."

"Then why did you kill that female dog in the alley?"

"You found the body."

"Yes, I found the damn body! I found a puppy who now is an orphan because of what you did, you could have easily taken the litter without killing their mother and you know it!"

Scourge shook his head, "See…this is exactly what I'm talking about, a fucking weakness!"

Mike wasn't sure of what to say, "Um…so who's Lillian?"

Scourge growled, "She's the human brat who's going to be crying for him when I kill him", and with that said, Scourge got on all fours and went after Randall. As Stallion had explained in their plan, Randall ran up the levels of the garage while Scourge chased after him. Sulley ran after the two monsters with Mike and Fungus following suit. Randall was doing pretty well, he was half way up the third level until he felt Scourge pounce onto him, the two monsters rolled on the ground as Scourge grabbed Randall by the neck. He then grabbed the monster by his tail and tossed him onto the top of a car, Randall's weight putting one heck of a dent into it's top. Then Randall saw that Scourge started to push another car and sent it skidding towards him, he immediately jumped off and continued running as he heard the car collide with the other.

"Man, whoever owns that, I'm really hoping that they have insurance." he remarked as he continued to run.

Scourge yelled as he continued after him, finally Randall had made it to the top level but he couldn't see Stallion.

"Damn, where are you." he mumbled.

"There you are!"

Randall turned to see Scourge standing there, fury could be seen on his face and in his eyes. Scourge got on all fours and ran but then a form of black landed in front of him, he skidded to a halt when he saw the horse like monster. Scourge saw a flicker of light come from the eyes of this monster but he rubbed his eyes and seemed to be fine. Stallion looked at him oddly; this wasn't good, his glaring technique wasn't working possibly because Scourge had a very strong will.

"Come on, what are you waiting for?" Randall asked him.

"I'm sorry but it appears that my power is not working."

"What? You can't get it to work?"

"Afraid so but I assure you, it's not because of me. His will is stronger than I thought."

"So now what?" Randall asked him.

"We may have to fight."

Scourge had it as he then charged for Randall, completely going around Stallion and ignoring him. Sulley, Mike, and Fungus had just made it when they saw the two monsters locked in combat. Then they saw Stallion charge towards Scourge and punctured him in the side. The wolf like monster, out of both pain and anger, grabbed Stallion by his head. With all of his strength, he pulled the older monster off the ground and threw him down. Randall, now furious, darted in front of the wolf and whipped him with his tail. The attack threw him off guard and caused Scourge to hit the edge of the concrete and fall over the side. Minutes later, a loud crash could be heard as Randall looked down to see that Scourge had landed on top of a dumpster. His body didn't stir but then the large canine stood up and glared upwards at Randall, then he slowly got himself down and ran off into the night. Randall then remembered about Stallion and ran over to him, the horse was carefully getting himself up.

"You alright?"

Stallion shook his head as he then answered, "Yes, I'm fine but…he got away…who are these three here?"

Randall turned to see that his former fellow employees were still standing there, watching what just happened. "We can worry about them later, we need to get out of here especially if you're hurt."

Not sure of where else they could go, Randall decided that maybe sneaking back to his place would be their best bet. Inside of the old mansion, Randall couldn't help but notice that he heard the puppy barking. Inside of the kitchen, he saw that apparently Weasel had decided to come over and the puppy had cornered him upon the old counter. The small monster was panicking while Randall went over and picked up the young dog.

"Weasel, when did you get here?"

"I got here an hour ago and this…this terror decided to attack me!" the small monster screamed.

Randall looked down at the puppy and back towards Weasel, "It's a puppy."

"No! Wrong answer! That little beast is only terror, fear, and destruction on four legs! Do you know what happens to puppies? Sure they're cute now but they grow and become dogs and then they turn into killers who chase people, cars, AND small creatures such as myself! You're going to regret letting that little mutt into your place, I can guarantee that!"

Sulley, Mike and Fungus weren't exactly sure of what to think or make of the situation. Randall, unaware of their strange stares, focused back on Weasel, "You can't handle a small puppy? Didn't you date a dog once?"

"For your information, it was a chihuahua, a pure breed champion chihuahua and she acutally didn't like me that much, the relationship was kind of one sided. I honestly wanted to make it work but after she got fixed, she kind of lost that drive so we split…but that thing is not the same! At least my ex was attractive."

Stallion decided to interrupt, "Pardon my intrusion but our concern is your…friends here and what we're going to do about them. Is there anyway that we can discuss the fate of the young canine another time?"

"Yeah, sure."

Mike pretty much was thinking the same as his friends, "Okay? Well that was weird."


	16. Chapter 16

So...we'll be getting into two tense moments within this story...let's see how they turn out. MI characters belong to Pixar/Disney, my characters are mine, lyrics property of Linkin Park.

Chapter Sixteen

_You say the weight of the world has kept you from letting go, and you think compassion's a flaw and you'll never let it show, and you're sure you've hurt in a way that no one will ever know, but someday the weight of the world will give you the strength to go._

_-Linkin Park_

Stallion watched as the room seemed to be surrounded by silence, Randall standing near the piano as the three other monsters were opposite from him. "Randall, it's best if I get going before daylight, whatever these monsters are planning to do, it's best if they return from whence they came before morning." he sternly explained.

"Yeah, I know, don't worry about them. Just give me a little bit and I'll have them back home." the monster answered.

Before he left, Stallion turned towards the three, "I apologize for leaving so soon but good night to you all."

When it sounded like Stallion had left them, Sulley looked around the large room before he decided to speak. "Randall…is this where you live?"

"Yeah…it's not much but compared to where some banished monsters live, it's pretty good."

"Oh…that's good. So…what have you been up to?"

Randall could tell that the awkward conversation was due to the fact that these were the monsters who had banished him here. Picking up the puppy and handing him to Fungus, "Hey, Fungus, could you do me a favor and take the little guy out to do his business. Just take him outside through the back here. Weasel can show you the way."

Though not too thrilled, Fungus went ahead and took the little pup outside with Weasel right behind which left just the three within the room. Mike, feeling a little tense, decided to stand a slight bit behind Sulley. After clearing his throat, Randall decided that it was time to talk, "You know…four years ago if I were to have this chance to bump into you two here, in the human world like this, I would probably want to kill you."

A look of nervousness could be seen in both Sulley and Mike's eyes.

"But…that would have been four years ago, before all I've gone through, before I took a good look at myself and at what I could have done, at whom I could have become…I guess that what I'm trying to say is that…after what happened four years ago, I forgive you."

Those three words were the last thing that they were expecting to hear, no words could describe the feeling of shock that they felt to hear that. Sulley then cleared his throat as he decided to now say a few words, "That's wonderful but I still feel that something has to be said. I feel that I speak for the both of us when we say that for what we did to you, banishing you here, a place where you could have easily been killed, we're sorry and it never should have happened."

Randall shrugged, "Well, you're right but it's not like I don't understand why you did it. You were protecting the kid, it's understandable."

"And how would you understand that?" Mike asked, regaining his courage.

"Well Wasoski, I would do the same thing for Lillian if any monster were to try and hurt her. Remember my machine, the scream extractor?"

"Yeah."

"Looking back, it's probably a good thing that it wasn't shown to the board now that I think about it. While I've been out here, I've been thinking about the design and what I made it to do…there's a good chance that it could have killed a kid…a very good chance also not to mention that eventually parents would get suspicious if their children were gone without a trace."

Suddenly, barking could be heard as the puppy came running into the room and immediately tried to jump up on Randall, clearly wanting to play. He picked the little one up as he held it in his upper arms, "Had any trouble with him?"

Fungus adjusted his glasses, "I wasn't sure if he knew exactly what to do when we got outside to be honest with you but he did his business."

"Yeah, near me." Weasel complained.

Sulley, very curious, decided to ask, "So who is this Lillian that you're talking about? Is she a human child?"

"Yeah, she's a human child", Randall told him, "She's probably at home right now but you guys said that you didn't have a lot of time so maybe tomorrow, I can try to bring her here and introduce you guys if you were up to it."

Weasel got a little nervous, "I don't know if introducing monsters from our world to a human is a good idea."

"Don't worry, they don't mind humans. Heck, Sullivan actually helped save the same human girl that I almost used as a guinea pig for my machine. Trust me, I think they'll be fine!"

"He did?" Weasel asked, looking towards the large monster.

"Yes, she was a little girl that we called Boo. Very sweet, you could say that I honestly felt a parental bond with her. The last time I saw her was nearly two years ago before she started school. We'll be fine and in fact, would love to meet Lillian."

Weasel stared at him a little strange, "So is Boo a nickname because I can't imagine a set of human parents naming their child Boo. Randall, was she one of your scaring assignments, is that how you know who he's talking about?"

The reptile like monster nodded, "Yeah, of course she was one of my scaring assignments although if memory serves me, her real name was Mary but yeah, remember what I told you when we first met, these are the same monsters that sent me here and the rest of the story you know."

Fungus decided to redirect the conversation, "Let's not forget that we have a very small time window, we need to get back to Kevin's house in order to get back home with enough time before the following work day."

"That's fine, I'll help you guys get there, just lead the way." Randall told them.

"Well you guys have fun, I need to find some food before morning." Weasel told them as he ran out of the room towards the back door.

Lillian was exhausted as she looked at the nearly over filled pillow sack, despite bumping into Brendan, they had a pretty good turnout. She fumbled around to grab herself a mini chocolate bar, crumbling up the wrapper and tossing it in the small trash can. Then she couldn't help but think about Randall, her thoughts pretty much returning to where they were a few hours ago. She had to honestly think about this, what exactly was going on to where she hadn't seen him in a month? It was true that since she started being friends with Morgana that her time spent with Randall had been pretty much limited. Even though, it wasn't like he couldn't come and see her if he wanted to. Seriously, was it possible that maybe their friendship was only temporary until she had found herself human friends. Even worse than that, was he truly not interested in being friends with her at all and took her newfound friendship with Morgana as a means of escape? She didn't want to think like that but it honestly was appearing to be that way.

"Hey Lillian!"

"Yeah." She called out.

Morgana came into the room, the girls were able to talk Lillian's mother into letting them have a sleepover for the night.

"Does your mom have any old rags because I'm using this washcloth and it's kind of…getting really dirty with my face makeup here. Hope your mom won't get mad because I honestly didn't think that the makeup would do that."

"Well, we got clean kitchen rags under the sink or you could try paper towels too."

"I'll try that instead, maybe it'll work better." Morgana said as she went downstairs.

Then Lillian heard a strange tapping at her window, her eye lids flew open. Not sure if she heard right, she listened intently as she then heard the tapping again and much louder this time. Immediately she sat up and looked over towards the window, staring at it but then she heard the tap again and this time saw the dark silloute of Randall's tail! The girl quickly ran over to the window and opened it, Randall was right there with his usual smile.

"Oh my gosh, Randall, where the heck have you been?"

"It's a long story but I can explain."

He quickly darted inside of her room and used his tail to shut her window. She couldn't help but hug him, it was nice to see her friend after the long month.

"Okay", she said releasing him, "So where have you been? Tell me!"

"Okay, well, near the beginning of the month, I had bumped into this interesting pair. Some monster called Stallion and his human friend, Celine. Apparently they had been watching me for awhile and also heard about Scourge too. You see, this Stallion monster actually goes around stopping monsters like him and they asked for my help. For the past month, he was training me which wasn't easy but we were planning to make our move tonight."

"So what happened?" Lillian asked, feeling pretty excited.

"Uh…well, the plan didn't work out and on top of that, I also bumped into my old co-workers from back home. Turns out that the CDA were kind of aware of what he was doing and sent them here to take the damn dog back."

"Okay, so that explains where you've been but still, you could have tried coming over when you weren't so busy or something?"

"Sorry Lillian but I tried coming over once or twice but when I did, you were busy on the phone and stuff. I figured that you were spending time with this Morgana so I was sure that you would be fine until afterwards."

The reality that her trying to find a way to balance the two friendships would be difficult was becoming very clear but then she realized.

"Oh shoot…Morgana! Randall, you have got to-!"

"Got the makeup off!" they heard her yell from downstairs.

"Wait, she's here now?" Randall stammered .

"Hide!" Lillian commanded.

Randall immediately disappeared and just in time before Morgana came back into the room.

"So, anyway we could order a pizza or something?" Morgana asked.

"It's kind of late for a pizza, no place is going to be open but you know what? We could definitely watch horror flicks in the living room, I think we have Friday the 13th or even A Nightmare on Elm Street?"

The goth shrugged, "Nah, I've seen both the originals and the remakes already", then she walked around the room, "Hey, think it's okay for me to snap a few shots for like scrapbook stuff?"

"Uh…sure, that's cool, maybe while you're doing that, I'll go see about what movies my mom has that could be interesting to watch."

Morgana went for her camara as Lillian left for her mother's room, she decided to snap a shot here or there but when she looked at one in particular, there was something odd. It was the strange fogginess that she had seen from the shots of the piano, her eyes got large as she looked down at the foot of Lillian's bed. That was where the strange fogginess could be seen in the shot, looking from her camara to the bed and back, she decided to do one little thing. Morgana stomped down her foot in the spot that the foggy figure was seen in her digital camara's screen. Immediately, a purple and blue tail appeared and Randall ran out and stood up, holding his tail and screaming in pain. Then he froze as he looked over to see Morgana standing there, mouth agape, she wasn't screaming but he wasn't sure if she was going to.

"Heh, heh…uh…bye!"

When he suddenly disappeared, Morgana started yelling, "LILLIAN!" Lillian quickly ran back into her room, "What, what is it?"

"You're not going to believe this! I just saw a huge and I'm talking freaking huge lizard…reptile…thing! He or she or whatever was all like screaming because I somehow stepped on his tail or whatever it was and I was all-!"

"Morgana! Are you sure about that because I don't see anything."

Morgana couldn't believe this, "Look, I know what I freaking saw and believe me, this is just one of those things that you don't just make up! I know what I saw! Maybe it's some kind of alien, does your mom know maybe? We have got to call her and ask her!"

Lillian immediately closed the door, knowing that it was now or never, her secret had to come out. "Okay…look, what you just saw…well, he was real but…if I tell you, you have got to promise me that you won't tell anyone."

"Yeah, okay, sure thing Lillian."

"No, I really mean it, no one. Not your parents, no other students, no teachers, nobody! Okay?"

Morgana could see just how serious this was, "Cross my heart and hope to die, I won't tell anyone."

"Okay", Lillian walked towards her bed, "Hey Randall, come on out, okay?"

Then they heard a voice, "She's not going to step on my tail again, is she?"

"Tell him no." she told Morgana.

"No dude…at least you sound like a dude, no, I'm not going to step on your tail, alright?"

"You see, she's not so come on out, please?" Lillian asked.

Suddenly, Randall reappeared on top of her bookshelf, clearly squeezing himself between the shelf and her ceiling.

"Why are you up there?' Lillian asked.

"Just making sure." he told her as he looked over towards Morgana.

"She's not dangerous Randall, she won't bite."

Randall slittered down from the top of the bookshelf and stood up when he reached the ground. Morgana could truly see him, not sure of what she was looking at but by far, he had to be the strangest looking thing she ever saw, it was kind of cool.

"Randall, this here is my friend Morgana, the one I told you about."

Lillian could see the surprise on her human friend's face, "Morgana, this here is Randall, he's actually my first friend."

The goth nodded, walked around the monster for a bit then decided to start asking her own questions, "So you're the one that kept appearing as the foggy shadow in my pictures."

"What?" Randall wasn't sure if he heard her right.

"Well yeah, I could show you on Lillian's computer if you want", motioning towards the computer, "Can I?"

"Sure thing."

The goth went over to Lillian's computer, plugged in her card reader, inserted the memory card, and pulled up the folder onto the desktop. She pulled up the shot of the bed and opened it to full screen, "See that strange foggy thing there? That's what I saw and when I stomped down in that spot then you popped up from the other side."

Randall just stared at her for a bit, "Well it could have been just your luck."

She pulled up a shot of the piano, "Very large foggy shape, invert colors and ta-da! There you are."

The reptilous monster stared at the image then back at Morgana, "Okay…that's unfortunate."

She smiled at him with a sly grin, "Okay…so now since you know about that, I have got to ask you some stuff. First, are you definitely a guy or a girl? Second, exactly what are you? Some kind of alien, government experiment, mutant lizard? Third, can you like shoot acid or have poison or something awesome like that?"

He stared at her with the most odd look he could muster, "First answer, I'm definitely a guy, trust me on that when I say it."

Morgana tried to look below his legs but stopped when she noticed that he was shaking his head.

"I AM a guy, you don't have to check for that. Second answer, I'm what you children would know as a monster. No alien, no experiment, none of that sci-fi stuff. Third answer, the only abilities I have is camouflaging and crawling on walls. No poison or acid, I don't do anything like that at all. Do you have any other strange or peculiar questions?"

"Just one more but it's not for you", looking over to Lillian, "So, were you going to keep him a secret forever or what?"

"Well, I will be honest that I wasn't sure if I would ever tell you about him. If you think about it, trying to explain to someone about him isn't the easiest thing to do. You could have thought that I was crazy, you could have tried to go to the police, all kinds of stuff could go wrong if I would have told you about him."

"Are there others like him?"

"Well, there are other monsters, some of them banished and living here within West Port. In fact, you know Candi, Brendan's girlfriend?"

"Yeah." Morgana nodded.

"She's not human, she's also a monster but she has an ability to where she can change her physical appearance to look like someone else."

"When you say banished, do you mean as in kicked out from another city or something?"

Lillian shook her head, "No, banished as in kicked out of their own world."

"What? They don't even come from here?"

"No, the monsters come from their own world that according to Randall is actually a lot like ours except that it's more monster like. Banishment is considered one of the highest forms of punishment where they come from."

"Damn, what did you do to get that?"

Randall simply answered, "Built a machine designed to suck the screams out of a human child, kidnapped a kid that one of my former co-workers got too close to, and was banished by them after all of that."

Morgana stared at him shocked, "Really? So your co-workers were like undercover agents or something?"

"No, they were just regular employees."

"Huh", remarked Morgana, "Wait, so then technically you were banished without the jurisdiction of law enforcement? Wonder what happened to them?"

"And that's why I'm here", Randall started to explain, "As I was saying, the plan that Stallion and I had formed fell through. During the process, my old co-workers showed up. Turns out the CDA was getting suspicious and want Scourge back in the monster world. When I escorted Sulley and them back to that kid's door, they were talking to me about how they would try to do what they could until Scourge was captured and taken back. I've been thinking about their situation actually."

Lillian could see where this was going, "Let me guess, you want to help them."

"Well yes, they've never been to West Port and considering how dangerous some banished monsters can get, it's safer for them if they searched for him with the help of another banished monster."

"Are you forgetting that they are the ones that sent you here?" She told him.

"We've already talked about that, we've said our apologies and have decided to move on. Tomorrow night, I'm going to see Stallion first and tell him about the conversation that I had with them then I'll be helping them until Scourge is back in Monstropolis in cuffs."

She just couldn't believe this, even if they had resolved what happened those years ago, it still bothered her that Randall was forced to live here because of them.

"Lillian."

Her attention refocused at the sound of Randall's voice, "I told them about you and they were interested in meeting you. If you want, Morgana can also come along too if it will help you feel a little more comfortable."

"You know what, that's fine, actually yeah. I would love to meet these monsters, we can meet at your place tomorrow night no problem."

The next morning, what appeared to be two teenagers and a young adult girl were sitting on a park bench. The young adult looked like she was about twenty one while her teenage friends were fifthteen and fourteen.

"So…is this where they say that the doctor could be found, Chris?" asked the teenage girl.

"That's the rumor spreading amongst our kind." responded the adult girl.

"Do we know if the rest of the pack showed up yet?" asked the teenage boy.

"We won't know for sure until we see them, Eli." responded the adult.

The three, for any who knew them, were a small group led by the adult girl called Chris. She was dressed in a rock style small t-shirt with black grunge style pants. The teenage boy went by the name of Eli, he was the second oldest and dressed in a similar rock style garb to the leader. The youngest was Leann, she was Eli's sister and dressed in a long sleeved black shirt and frilly black and gray styled tutu with long stockings, basically a type of cutsey goth look. They simply sat there as they saw a limo pass by with a young boy and his girl seen through an open window. The three watched the limo, "Did you sense it too", Eli asked.

"Yep definitely, that girl is not human, she's one of us." Chris remarked.

Leann felt nervous as she fumbled with her pigtails, "Where would she be going with that human? The only place I know of that teenage humans would go to at this hour is school."

"Then that's probably where they're going." Chris told her.

Leann sighed to herself, "So Chris, when the doctor helps us then we'll never have to worry about being different anymore, right? We'll be just like the humans and be perfect, just like them."

"Don't get your hopes up too high just yet Leann, we don't know for certain if this doctor is the real deal. If things don't work out like we were hoping, I don't want you to be disappointed, sis." Eli explained.

"Doesn't mean that we can assume that we're wasting our time either." Chris explained to him.

Getting off the bench and stretching for a bit, Chris looked down at her followers, "So…we planning to sit here all day or do you guys want to go walking for awhile."

As the three decided to walk down the sidewalk, they took notice of whatever they could sense around them. They eventually walked down a neighborhood street and passed by an old house. The three froze for a bit as Chris shifted her gaze over to the house, immediately she could sense the presence of Randall inside.

"Another outsider." she told them.

Eli couldn't help but share her similar gaze while Leann simply looked down to the ground, "You know…outsiders are monsters just like us."

"Yeah but we're not monster enough for them so technically we're not the same as them." Eli corrected her.

"Exactly", Chris remarked, "Don't forget that it's monsters like them that are the reason why we're here. Our kind have been attacked and ridiculed by outsiders like them, in fact, the only ones who accept us are the humans themselves and even they don't know the whole truth about us."

"I know that but I just wonder if leaving home was the best thing, that's all. You would think that within time, monsters would learn to push aside that sort of prejudice. That one other humanoid that we met when we were following the highway had said that the monster world has converted to laugh energy. Wouldn't that mean that maybe monsters don't fear humans as much? It's possible that maybe they would be willing to look past our outside and see what's inside instead." Lean told them.

"If there is one trait that both humans and monsters share, it's this. Prejudice is not something that's going to disappear over night. While some may have adjusted to the change and have accepted a new outlook, most have not and won't for as long as they live. Trust me Leann, we're better off in the human world and when the rest of the pack catches up, you'll see."

"Think that one girl in the limo knows?" Eli remarked.

Chris shook her head, "Depending on what she's heard, maybe not, we should watch her for the while and maybe let her know. If she's anything like we are, she'll want and hope that this doctor can finally fix us."


	17. Chapter 17

Another chapter, another day...so let's see how Lillian handles meeting the old co-workers from MI, and also our orphaned puppy gets himself a new home and his first name. MI characters belong to Pixar/Disney, my characters belong to me, lyrics property of Linkin Park.

Chapter Seventeen

_I'm stuck in this bed you made, alone with a sinking feeling. I saw through the words you said to the secrets you've been keeping. It's written upon your face, all the lies how they cut so deeply, you can't get enough, you take and take and take and never say no.._

_-Linkin Park_

The laugh floor seemed to take on a different feeling at night as opposed to during the day, Mike could feel it as he felt a slight bit of fear while he and Sulley waited for Fungus. They looked up toward the clock, their time window was getting smaller by the minute.

"Hey Sulley?"

"Yeah Mike?"

"What did you think about yesterday, about what happened?"

"Well, we didn't exactly pull it off as-."

"No, I mean about Randall, that whole thing of apologizing to us. That's what I mean."

"Oh…well, at least he wasn't mad at us, that's good, right buddy?"

The one eyed monster rubbed his head, "Yeah sure, not that I'm complaining but I guess if it were me, I would still be pretty pissed. In fact, I would probably have spent the whole time in the human world preparing and hating the one who sent me there. I'm just shocked that he wasn't really mad at all."

Sulley gave it a slight bit of thought, "Maybe he's experienced some things there in the human world that changed him. He seems to know Scourge and definitely knows about what he does. He might have seen or even experienced firsthand what this monster does and it had an effect on him."

Mike nodded in agreement but then Sulley brought up another point, "Or it could be that now he's gotten older, he's matured a little and realized that holding onto that anger just wasn't worth it to him. The only one who truly knows and understands this is Randall, we can only imagine."

Then Fungus came running onto the floor, breathing heavily, "I'm so sorry I'm late, I was picking up around the house and time got away from me and…oh boy."

"It's alright, let's get going." Sulley told him. Mike swiped the card key, put in the numbers and waited as the door pulled into the station. Once it was down onto the floor, Mike pressed the large red button, activating the door.

Randall waited outside Kevin's house, Weasel sitting with him within the bushes. Then they saw the three monsters try to sneak around the corner of the house, "There they are." Randall motioned for the three to come over towards the bushes, from there he had to sneak them back to the mansion. Inside, Lillian and Morgana waited in the music room but weren't exactly sure what to expect. What kind of monsters were they going to see, what would they be like? The door could be heard but the first monster they saw was Weasel, he froze when he saw Morgana, "Uh…who are you?"

"Name's Morgana, I'm friends with Lillian." she explained to him.

"Oh…okay. Halloween was yesterday."

"I dress this way normally, dude."

Then came the rest of the monsters, Sulley was the first to come up to Morgana and offer his hand, "Hi, I'm James P. Sullivan but you can call me Sulley."

"She's Lillian, I'm her friend." she told him.

"Oh sorry", he said, "So you're Lillian"

"And you're Sulley. Which one's Mike?"

"That would be me." Mike told her.

Randall could already see what she was doing, "This here is Fungus, he was my scaring assistant back at MI."

"So, Sulley…it was you and Mike who banished him, right?"

"Lillian!" Randall remarked.

"Yeah, but it didn't make it right and we are aware of this." Sulley retorted.

"You're aware of this now!" She told them.

"Lillian, upstairs please?" Randall asked her.

She sighed as she followed the reptilian monster upstairs which left Morgana alone with the other monsters. Once upstairs, Randall knew that he had to get to the bottom of this, "What are you doing?"

"I'm just asking them a few questions, that's all."

"No, you're grilling them. I already told you that we've resolved what's happened. Please don't be like this to them."

"Fine, I'll be civil but it doesn't mean that I have to like them."

When they went back downstairs, a loud knock could be heard at the backdoor, it opened to reveal that Stallion along with Celine had arrived to the place as well.

"Wow, you're here and I didn't even tell you about them coming back."

Stallion's eyes went from Randall to Lillian, "I'm here because last night didn't quite go as planned but it seems that something else is taking place?"

"Actually yeah, Sullivan was telling me yesterday about why they came here in the first place. We may have a chance to get rid of Scourge for good."

"Really", Stallion answered with a hint of interest, "Do tell…"

Candi was on her knees, exhausted while an orange female monster laid upon the ground, muffled breathing could be heard from her. The female monster that Candi had barely beaten, had her head down in a small pool of blood, probably due to her nose bleeding. As Candi sat there panting, "Damn…stupid bitch….had some fight…"

Brendan just stood there, no expression on his face but finally decided to walk towards what was left of the match. Using the toe of his shoe, he lifted up the furry paw of the monster,

"Huh…damn thing had claws. That fight took a little longer than it had to, care to explain to me why you resorted to hair pulling", he sternly asked.

"Sorry Brendan, I normally don't fight other girls and also, she's a furred monster! What else was I going to grab on to? You don't think I went too far, did I?"

"What makes you say that."

"Well, I think that I busted the girl's nose, I was just asking if you thought so."

He sighed as he kicked the monster's paw off his shoe, "You should have skipped the girly crap and got serious from the start!"

After regaining her breath, her ears slightly perked up when she looked across the horizon to see that there were three other humanoids traveling by rooftop.

"What?" Brendan demanded.

"It's nothing. So, what do you think lizard boy is up to?"

"Don't know, don't care."

"Well, I want to see what he's up to, can I?"

"Fine!"

Candi gave Brendan a hug and took off towards Randall's place, she wanted to know what he did for Halloween since she hadn't seen him at all yesterday. When Candi was gone, Brendan kneeled down next to the body of the loser. He lifted up her fur for a minute and simply shook his head in disgust, "This is definitely going to be the last girl fight she does, that was pathetic!"

Candi took her time until she finally made it to the house, she snuck inside through an upstairs window, wondering just how surprised Randall would be to see her. Downstairs, he heard a loud thump coming through the ceiling, "What was that" Mike asked.

"I'll go check it out, give me a minute."

As Randall started to go up, the puppy started to follow him but he used his tail to pick the little one up and set him down at the foot of the stairs.

"I can handle this, thanks for wanting to come up with me though."

As Randall got up the stairs, he peeked inside the bedroom. He walked around but when he peered into the old dusty mirror, he thought that he could see Candi sitting casually on the nightstand behind him.

"Hi lizard boy."

He face palmed and gave it a good couple of seconds before answering, "Hello Candi, what do you want?"

"So what did you do for Halloween?"

"Nothing that interests you." he explained as he started to leave.

She joyfully followed him but then, "OH MY GOSH, A PUPPY!" She nearly ran over Randall to get to the little one, "Oh look at him…wait." She lifted the puppy up allowing her to see between his legs, "Yeah, it's a him. How cute! What's his name? Where did you get him? Can I keep him?"

Randall took the puppy from her arms, "He has no name, you don't really want to know, and no, you can't keep him."

"Can I at least hold him?" she begged.

"No."

"You sure?"

"Yes."

Then her attention turned to see Morgana sitting there on the piano bench, "Oh…you…you're here."

"Hey Brendan's chick!" Morgana told her with a wave.

"What? How do you know about that? Did Lillian tell you? How did she know about that?"

"Who's this?" Mike asked. Candi then noticed the other guys for the first time, suddenly her face changed to a mischievous one, "I'm Candi but you can call me whatever you like, cutie."

The one eyed monster started to get a little nervous, "While I can understand why a lady such as yourself could find me attractive, I'm sorry but I'm already taken."

"Oh that's okay, I don't mind sharing."

His jaw dropped but then she walked over to Sulley, rubbing his arm she asked, "Wow, you the working out type?"

"Uh…yeah, I guess." Then she bent over to look at Fungus, "Hey there, don't worry, I didn't forget about you. I'm sure that you've never been with a woman before, right? Most nerds don't date or so I've been told."

"Candi, knock it off!" Randall yelled at her.

She looked over to him, "What's wrong, Randy? You jealous already? You know that there's always a special place for you in my bed anytime you're interested."

"Aren't you late for something like getting tested for diseases!" he retorted.

"Ha, ha, you are too funny."

"Damn, I knew that she was the hot chick at school but I didn't know that she was a slut too." Morgana added. Candi glared at her, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

"With all due respect, young lady, but unless you are here to help and assist in the current discussion, I think that it's best if you leave." Stallion told her.

"For your information, I just got here so I'm not leaving if I don't want to!" She remarked.

"Can we please get back to what we were discussing?" Fungus interrupted.

"What were we discussing?"

"Well, we were discussing on how we shall be working with Randall in order to capture Scourge."

Candi gasped, "What? You guys are going after Scourge? He's a dangerous monster, you don't want to go after him!"

"The CDA sent us here for that reason." Sulley explained.

"Wait, the CDA? You three aren't banished monsters?"

"No they're not, and also, they are the ones who banished Randall here." Weasel added.

"What? So you three work with the CDA?"

"Well…not exactly." Mike told her. Her whole attitude changed, "If you guys want to get Scourge that bad then you should do it on your own! Randall doesn't have to help you if he doesn't want to!"

"But I do want to help them!" Randall told her.

"Hey, maybe you two could help us also." Fungus suggested.

"No way!" Candi yelled.

"I second the notion, we don't owe the CDA anything and also, you're not banished monsters so we have no reason to help you!" Weasel told them.

"Need I remind you that with Scourge gone that life will be so much easier on us all." Stallion explained.

"Really? That's after he's gone but how about the work and trials before that, has any consideration been taken into account that Scourge won't go down without a fight. If you guys go pissing him off by chasing him then he takes his anger out on the other monsters of West Port and that leaves the banished monsters another reason to hate Randall's guts! We're better off if we just leave him be!"

"Well I'm going to help them, nobody said that you two had to help anyway!" Randall yelled.

The puppy whimpered as it pawed at Lillian's shoe, picking him up and redirecting the conversation, "So what about this little guy, how did you find him and what are we going to do about him?"

"He apparently was sleeping with the dead body of his mother, Scourge killed her and took the other pups possibly missing him."

"Why?"

"He might be recruiting and he's trying to start some of the new members young."

"But you won't be able to keep him Randall, this puppy is going to grow and also, it's going to take a lot of work to feed, train, and care for him."

"Uh…well", Randall rubbed his fronds nervously, "I was wondering about how your mother would feel about you getting a pet?"

"Me? I could ask her and he is cute but I can't guarantee it."

"You have been feeding him dog chow, right?" Morgana asked.

"That's what I'm planning to do after I take them back to the closet door" Randall explained.

Scourge was resting on an old mattress, his breathing resulting in the ongoing pain of the injury that was inflicted on him the night before. "Damn son of a bitch! Where the fuck did Randall get off having me being jumped from behind?"

Butch was carrying a small bucket full of water, inside was an old rag that was slightly stained by blood. The Doberman set the bucket down near his master, allowing the wolf to grab the wet rag and hold it at his side, "Thank you Butch." Then he could hear whimpering coming from a metal cage, the litter of puppies were inside staring at him with their sad faces.

"Shut up." he mumbled.

It seemed that once he said that then the puppies whimpered louder and even started to cry.

"Shut up!" he said louder.

Butch barked at the puppies that silenced them for a minute but then they started up again, "SHUT UP", Scourge roared.

They immediately got quiet and huddled together, Scourge groaned with some relief, "Finally, damn bastards."

While it would take some time, he knew that eventually he would heal up and be just fine although taking the puppies wasn't the brightest idea. Due to their young age, all they did was cry and whimper, they would definitely have to hold off on training the little mutts until after they got over the death of their mother. As for Scourge, he would definitely need to take some time off but then that meant that Butch would have to hunt more, for both the pack and his master. Considering the pain that he was in, he honestly didn't give a damn at this point.

It was around three or so in the morning, while Lillian and Morgana kept the puppy company back at the mansion, Randall was at the pet store getting some dog food. Of course, a task that he could easily manage on his own could not be done on his own. Candi and Weasel decided to follow him, why, who knows the reason. The pet store was huge, different little cages of various small animals were down different aisles.

"Alright, dog food, dog food, what section is that in?"

"Maybe it's in the doggie supply aisle." Candi pointed out.

"And what part of the store is that?" Randall asked her.

As the two monsters took off looking for dog food, Weasel couldn't help but notice that a lot of these small animals were making him hungry. There were snakes, rabbits, rats, hamsters, his stomach started to rumble.

"Well…one snack wouldn't hurt."

Randall and Candi had found the dog food aisle, looking through the different kinds and packaging. "We should get the canned food." Candi suggested.

Randall glared at her, "There's very little food in the canned stuff, let's just get a bag, it will last us longer."

"But dried food is boring for puppies." Candi complained.

"You're not the one eating it", then Randall just noticed, "Hey, where's Weasel?"

"I don't know."

Weasel, after some struggling, had pulled out a small snake out of a cage. Just as he was going to bite off the head, Randall showed up around the corner.

"Weasel, what are you doing?"

"Uh…I was just trying to see what type of snake this is."

Randall glared at him, "Put it back!"

The small monster released the snake and closed its cage. He started to follow Randall but then snuck off towards the pet birds.

"Okay, we'll go ahead and get the small puppy dog food bag, dried food version."

Candi, not happy with the choice, grabbed the bag that Randall had suggested.

"Alright, maybe we should try getting the little guy a collar."

"What for?" Candi asked.

"If we want a shot at Lillian's mother approving on adopting him, we need to try and make him look a little more presentable."

"So you did find Weasel right?"

"Yeah, I did", but once again, he was gone, "Damn it, go find a collar, I'll go get him."

Weasel this time had decided to make an attempt at eating some birds instead but they were faster and harder to catch than the snake was. Finally, he had his claws around a small parakeet, "Gotcha!" As the little bird was squealing and trying to bite and peck, Weasel was planning to twist off it's little head before eating.

"Weasel!"

He turned to see that once again, there Randall was, glaring at him with his arms crossed.

"I didn't do anything to it, I swear!"

"Put it back now!"

The small monster grumbled as he tossed the little bird back into the cage, it chirping at him in anger. Candi was looking through the different choice of collars then she saw the guys coming back.

"Well, did you find anything?" Randall asked her.

"Yeah, I think that we should get him this, it's so cute!" The reptilious monster stared at the black collar, "It has rhinestones on it."

"Yeah, I know, it's cool because then he can have some bling-bling!" Candi excitedly told him.

"We are NOT getting a collar with rhinestones for a male dog! No, just stick to something simple like this one." Randall told her as he grabbed a basic chain collar.

"That is so boring and also, he's gonna look like a junkyard dog with that, I don't like it!"

"He's not going to be your dog, I don't care if you don't like it, we just need a collar for him!" Randall told her.

"Weasel's gone again." Candi told him.

"What", sure enough he was, "Damn it Weasel!"

For his last attempt, Weasel was holding a rabbit by it's ears, very excited since it had been way too long since he had rabbit meat. Just as he opened his mouth, he froze due to Randall popping up right in front of him, glaring. Holding out his hand, "Give him to me."

"I wasn't going to eat him, I was going to pet him."

"Give it!"

Weasel held out the rabbit as Randall grabbed it and slowly put it back into the cage. Then, he grabbed Weasel by the feathers of his skull and dragged him back to the collar aisle. He handed Weasel over to Candi, "Hold onto him please!"

"Ewww, I don't want to hold onto him!" Candi complained, holding the monster a slight bit away from her body.

"Come on Randall, you've eaten chicken before, rabbit meat it a lot like that!" Weasel explained.

Randall looked through the accessories until he found what he was looking for, a smile forming on his face.

"Randall, what are you doing", Weasel then saw what he grabbed, "What? No, come on, I'll behave, seriously, we don't have to use that, No!"

After a couple of minutes struggling with the monster, Weasel was on the floor banging his head and gripping at the muzzle now strapped to him.

"Ahh, get it off, get this freaking thing off! This is humiliating! Get this freaking thing off!"

"We'll get it off of you before we leave", Randall told him, "Okay, how about this little collar." Candi looked at the cobalt blue collar, "I guess it'll do."

"It will be just fine, let's get back before it gets any later." Randall told her.

The next day after school, Lillian and Morgana had gone over to the mansion to pick up the puppy and also the supplies for the little guy. They were giving him a bath in the upstairs bathroom although he apparently didn't like that as much but at least he was cleaner and smelled better. The girls had decided to go with the traditional my friend gave him as a gift routine. While Lillian's mother wasn't as thrilled about him, she was willing to allow Lillian to keep the puppy as long as his care was strictly her responsibility. Using a dark towel, they had him dried up more or less but naturally, that didn't stop the little guy from shaking around. Putting on the collar, the girls were pretty satisfied about his appearance.

"So, what are you going to call him?" Morgana asked. Lillian thought about it, there were all kinds of names that she could go with. She could go for the typical dog names or something a little more creative.

"How about…Monster?"

"Ha, Monster? It's unique but what inspiration led to this name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Well, it was a monster that found him and also, he didn't seem to mind Randall so maybe he likes monsters too."

"Monster it is then."

The puppy, wagging its tail, snuggled next to Lillian. She could tell that he already felt a sense of security with her but how he came to become her puppy was still very sad. He lost his mother and all of his siblings but he was lucky enough to escape Scourge in order to find a better home.

"So, what do you think about Randall's buddies from back home?" Morgana asked her.

"Well…I don't exactly like them to be honest."

"Yeah but didn't Randall say that they resolved whatever problems they had though?"

"Yeah", Lillian told her, "But it doesn't mean that I have to like them."

"I guess but what's Candi's problem? Does she have to be a slut?"

"I honestly don't know how to answer that but she's kind of obsessed with Randall."

"She is?" Morgana questioned.

"Yeah, he used to like her but after he found out about her 'lifestyle', he lost interest but now she goes bugging the heck out of him. I wish that I understood her but I don't."

"So does Brendan know that she's not, you know, human?"

Lillian looked up, "Yeah, he does. He actually has her fight other banished monsters."

"Why?"

"I don't know, maybe he feels more like a man if he has her fight for him."

Morgana shook her head, "That's like slavery, disappointing."

Lillian then remembered, "The pictures that you took with the fogginess in them, what were you planning to do with them?"

"Well, I could go ahead and delete them cause it's like you said, I can't tell anybody about him so that makes it our secret now."

"Yeah", Lillian agreed, "Although we'll probably have to keep this secret a long time but that's okay."

"So we can't tell your mom, right?"

"No way, she's not the biggest fan of reptiles. If she saw Randall, she would definitely think that she had lost her mind." Lillian told her friend.


	18. Chapter 18

All MI characters belong to Pixar/Disney, my characters belong to me, lyrics property of Linkin Park.

Chapter Eighteen

_Steel unload, Final Blow, We the animals take control, Hear us now, Clear and True, Wretches and Kings we come for you!_

_-Linkin Park_

The city of Monstropolis was filled with reports of an escaped convict, CDA trucks were searching throughout the streets. If you didn't know any better, you would almost wonder if maybe another human child had escaped back into their city. A medium sized monster stood guard in the middle of the laugh floor, "Hey, hurry it up, will ya? If you're planning to run then you have to make it quick!"

A door came down into the station and with a few pushes of a button, it was turned on, the monster was still feeling nervous.

"This better be worth it, you promised me a good deal of cash if I helped you escape, you better keep to your word."

Then suddenly, the monster felt a blow to his head and he hit the ground.

"Sorry, you were really helpful but a monster such as myself is better off alone."

He was known to his former employees as Henry J. Waternoose, he was the CEO of Monsters Incorporated but now he was a criminal. After swiping a random card and turning on the red light to the door, he opened it and quickly ran in.

It had been about three months since Halloween night, Scourge had quickly healed himself within a week or two but made an unfortunate discovery. During the time, he discovered that the night of bumping into these old friends of Randall's wasn't going to be a one time thing. In fact, nearly every night or even every couple of nights, he was nearly running into them. Not only was he getting pretty pissed off but getting his ass chased every night was conflicting with his routine. Reports in the paper that saw the strange pattern that he displayed with his killings made the humans wonder if maybe he had left their city. Damn it, he thought, he could understand why Randall would want him gone but were the CDA that desperate to take him back? It was only a matter of time before his activities would have been catching their attention but for what reason? Was it because they were that afraid that his capture by the humans would reveal the location of their world? Well, naturally if Scourge did get caught then of course he was talking, if he was going down then the assholes that sent him here were coming along for the ride. Either way he was pissed off and needed something, anything at this point to calm his nerves. Then he looked up at the top of an old building, there bouncing around like a kid high on sugar was Candi.

"Huh, isn't she the one that you look for when it comes to a good time?"

Fuck it, he thought, he knew of the type of monster Candi was and he needed a temporary distraction. She was dancing around, just being silly, she had started bugging Randall more than usual especially since his CDA buddies were coming a lot. She knew that it annoyed him to no end but she figured that eventually, he would give in and follow her to bed. She then felt somebody grab her by the shoulder and spun her around, seeing who it was she nearly screamed. It was Scourge, he didn't seem to show any kind of emotion on his face as she slowly walked herself back into a small brick structure. He grabbed her by her neck and just held her there as she started screaming and crying.

"Shut up!" he yelled.

She shrieked for a bit but quickly started to quiet, "What do you want?"

Scourge took a good look at her for the first time, she was slender and very human like, reminding him of some of the teenage girls that he had hunted here or there. He had that feeling and knew how to relieve it, "I hear that you're willing to be with any monster so let's go."

"What? No, I don't want to screw you! Why don't you find somebody else to mess with!" she remarked.

"There's nobody here so shut up and behave while I do what I need to do!"

"I said no!"

He got his face nearly inches away from hers, "Well little girl, maybe you should think about that before you go messing around. If you're the type who's easy then any guy will be expecting that and nothing else. I suggest you deliver before I change my mind and silence your sorry ass for good!"

Candi started screaming, hoping that maybe another monster would hear her but Scourge was losing his patience. He pinned himself against her as she struggled to push him away. Down below, Randall along with the others had just walked into the same alley. He could hear the screams and knew exactly who they belonged to, "Stay here guys, I need to check something out!"

Quickly crawling up the wall, he saw that Candi wasn't exactly having a fun time but then again, any guy forcing themselves onto a woman wasn't fun at all. Randall started to growl as he quickly darted over and whipped Scourge in the head, hard! This sent the monster falling to the ground, clutching the area where he was hit. Candi, relieved to have him off of her, fell to her knees and started crying even harder. Randall stood in front of her, on all eight legs in a stance of defense. When Scourge got up, he peered down the side of the building to see that sure enough, the little cavalry was waiting at the bottom. He glared at Randall and ran off in the opposite direction, honestly tired of it all. When it looked like that the wolf was gone, Randall refocused his attention back to Candi, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…I…I think so." she told him in a sniffling kind of voice.

"Are you sure, he didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No, he tried but didn't quite make it that far. Thanks, I was afraid that he was going to rape me!"

It was clear that the female monster was very shaken by what just happened and afraid that maybe Scourge could change his mind, Randall felt that he had to make sure that she made it back home.

"Come on, the guys are with me and we can walk you back to your place, just in case he tries again."

Offering his hand to her, Randall pulled her to her feet and the two walked over to the edge of the building and slowly scaled the way down.

Scourge had ran himself pretty far, not quite keeping track until he just noticed that he ran himself right in front of the entrance to the city dump. He knew very well who lived here and called the wasteland home, naturally Weasel may know a thing or two about these other monsters. He walked down the piles of garbage but then he saw Weasel getting himself ready to eat a mouse.

"Hello old friend."

Weasel's eyes looked over towards the direction of the voice and immediately, he screamed and ran away from the larger monster. Scourge got on all fours until he cornered him and lifted Weasel up by the tail. Holding him so that way the two were face to face, he decided to ask, "Alright! You have got to know about who these fucking jokers are!"

"Wha, what, who are you talking about?" Weasel timidly asked.

"I'm referring to this Sullivan and his little party, the ones that Randall has been with chasing my tail for the past fucking months! How in the hell does he know them!"

"I…I don't know."

Scourge roared, resulting in the smaller monster screaming back in fear, "Liar! You know something, you always do! Either start talking or I start carving into your stomach my signature!"

"All right! All right, he used to work with them back when he worked at MI, in fact that Sullivan guy is now the current CEO of the damn company. The CDA sent them here to get rid of you and Randall's helping them do it!"

"That damn reptile is friends with a fucking human, they don't have a problem with this?"

"No, Sullivan was protecting some kid and sent Randall here as punishment!"

"What?" Scourge asked, not sure if he heard right.

"Uh…I meant a monster child and-."

"Liar!"

Weasel screamed in fear again as Scourge continued to question him, "You said that Randall was banished here by those monsters for doing something to a human kid? The CDA doesn't give a damn about children, they would have sent all their asses here if it involved a human child for all I care! That Sullivan has also befriended a kid? Damn bastard's a pussy just like the reptile!"

"So now since I told you, can you let me down?" Weasel cautiously asked him.

"What name did the child go by?"

"Uh, Sullivan called the kid 'Boo' but Randall said that her real name was Mary but she's not the same age as Lillian, this is a very small kid we're talking about here."

"How old?" Scourge asked.

"Uh…I don't know, five, six maybe?"

Scourge dropped him to the ground as he pondered this, Mary was a girl's name but then again, what were the odds that this kid would even live here. "Thanks for the information, I'll keep it in mind." Scourge told him, leaving Weasel there to question just what he had done.

The month of February is one month that some could either learn to love or simply enjoy hating. If there was one holiday that naturally made any single person cringe it was Valentine's day. Out of all the holidays in existence, this was definitely Lillian's least favorite and for good reason. When you go through elementary school, every year you were expected to get valentines for every person in your class which naturally resulted in you getting just as many cards back. That was nice and all but once you got past elementary and moved more into junior high then things changed. Classes didn't do the silly thing of getting everyone a card and the holiday was strictly a couple's day. It became a reminder for some students that nobody liked them in that way and getting nothing on the holiday was an even bigger reminder of that. Lillian always got something from her mom but come on, it was her mother, getting stuff from her was expected by now. To add further to this form of humiliation, her school did a special thing where you could send a rose to somebody in another class. You had a choice of three different colored roses, you could send a red one to represent love, a yellow one to represent friendship, and a white one to represent a secret admirer. While normally people who received red or yellow roses always knew who they came from, the white ones never had a name of the sender which always made one wonder of who sent it.

It was the last class period of the day when a member of the student council came into their class and handed a red rose to Morgana then continued handing roses to their respective owners. Puzzled that anybody would even bother, Morgana looked at the small card attached, "From Kevin? Who the heck is Kevin?"

Lillian pointed to one of the seats in the front, "That's Kevin."

When Morgana looked up, there he was, Kevin peered back and gave a corny smile while winking at her.

"Ugh, nice way to make me sick on this putrid holiday. Great, I have a crush from the class clown. You would think that if he was trying to impress me, he would have sent a black rose instead."

Then to add to the surprise, the girl handed her last rose over to Lillian, a white one out of all colors.

"Wow, white! Guess that means that somebody likes you." Morgana told her.

Lillian was just as shocked as her friend, who in the world would send her a rose today or any other day for that matter. Then she started to hope that maybe, just maybe it was from Mark. Wait but then if he did have a secret crush on her then why would he still be going out with Heather? The final bell rang and everybody was free, Morgana ignored Kevin's glance as she pulled Lillian along to her locker.

Candi was putting all of her valentines in a large tote bag, she was always prepared for this holiday. Then she wondered, "Hey Brendan, if everyone knows that you and I are supposedly dating, why do I always get valentines every year?"

"That depends, do they have names on them?"

"Yeah, some do and even some have phone numbers too but you know that I don't hook up with anyone I go to school with because of your reputation, I'm just wondering why?"

He shrugged, "Pure desperation, nothing more. Some guys are actually stupid enough to believe that if they shower a girl with gifts that she'll dump her boyfriend for them, a pathetic attempt."

"Oh, O-K Brendan!" she joyfully exclaimed.

"Do you think that Randall will give me a valentine?" She asked.

"You have a better chance of meeting the star of Twilight then getting a card from that stupid lizard!" Brendan sternly told her.

She glared at him, yes she understood that he didn't like Randall but that didn't mean that she couldn't, "Well then, I'll go ahead and ask him out for the evening."

Brendan nearly started laughing, "You do that and he'll stand you up, I guarantee it."

"No he won't, if he's going to act all gentleman like then he won't. By the way, who did you send that white rose to?"

"That is none of your damn business!" he remarked.

"Alright, sheesh, I was just asking, you don't have to tell me, Mr. Grumpy!" After she pulled the tote onto her shoulder, they took off towards the doors.

Lillian was still curious as to who gave her the rose but still couldn't figure it out, unfortunately someone else also noticed. "Well Lillian, surprised that you received anything today." Heather snarkly told her.

"This holiday isn't just a day for you, Heather." she retorted.

"Oh I know", Heather told her, "But it's still strange because you're not exactly Ms. America so I'm surprised that any boy would even bother, that's all."

"At least some boys have good taste!" Morgana interrupted. Mark, who was trying to stay out of this, couldn't help but turn red because in a way the comment was also directed at him.

"Yeah, whatever, tell that to your future husband Kevin aka the mega dork!" Heather replied.

"Just because he gave me something doesn't mean that I'm marrying him." she shot back.

"Still, I would hate to be the one to find out if that rose was actually a prank instead", turning to Mark, "Let's go already before I catch something."

Morgana and Lillian just watched them, now this new thought loomed in their minds. What if Heather was right, that maybe the rose was actually a prank instead?

"Just forget what she said, these roses cost about fifth teen bucks so I don't think anybody would waste that much money for a prank." Morgana explained.

"Speaking of which, why did you say that?"

"What?"

"About the whole guys with good taste thing? That was like a diss at Mark just as much as Heather!"

Morgana shrugged, "Sorry, she was attacking you and I was trying to help. I wasn't trying to take a stab at your crush, seriously I wasn't!"

"Fine but next time, try sending back comments to Heather only."

"Sure, I'll keep that in mind. Maybe we should ask Randall, he's a guy, he understands the opposite sex better than we would so maybe he might be able to tell if what you got is genuine there."

Lillian wasn't exactly sure if she wanted to tell him but still, he was a guy so maybe it wouldn't hurt.

"Alright then, we'll go over and see what he says."

It took about half an hour for the walk from the school, carefully they entered the old house. "Hey Randall, you awake?" Lillian shouted. When the girls walked into the music room, he suddenly appeared laying there upon the piano.

"Aww, you two didn't have to get me anything."

"Very funny, these aren't for you. Our school does this cheesy thing that you can send roses to people in class. Morgana got her rose from Kevin while mine was from a secret admirer." Lillian explained.

"Well, we think that Lillian's came from a guy. The queen of the school, Heather, pointed out that it could have been a prank. You're a guy, what do you think?" Morgana asked.

Randall wasn't sure, "Let me see it", he asked with his hand outstretched. He looked the flower over and analyzed the writing on the card, while it was cursive it was still a little messy for being a girl's handwriting.

"I think that it's a possibility that it's genuine but I don't think that Heather sent this to you if that's what you were thinking. The writing, though nice, is still a guy's handwriting and also, I think Heather would rather see you valentineless than having a valentine period."

He made a good point about that, a very good point, "So…do you think that maybe Mark sent it?"

"Mark? The same guy who can never remember your name despite that you two have gone to school for who knows how many years? That Mark?"

"He doesn't remember your name?" Morgana asked.

"Yeah, he's called her all kinds of names even though they are never her name." Randall added with a smile.

"Well, sometimes him talking to me is a sign that he knows I exist." Lillian stated.

"And you like the guy", Morgana shook her head, "If you two ever hook up, he better be able to remember your name by then I would hope." "Yeah…me too." remarked Lillian.

Chris, Eli, and Leann were waiting at the edge of a dark alley until a red haired guy then showed up around the corner, "I see that you came for the same reason" he told them.

"That depends, is the rest of the pack here yet?" Chris asked him.

"Yeah, it took awhile but they eventually caught up. So, does this city have any other humanoids besides the one we were supposed to meet up with?"

"Actually yes, there is another one. She's a female who disguises herself as a blond teenager. We've been watching her, hangs out with some kid and apparently bugs the hell out of an outsider."

The red haired guy cringed, "Do you mean she's flirting with an outsider? Has she forgotten what she is compared to them?"

"Hey, I don't know the girl personally so I can't say but I figured that if she's like the rest of us, she'll want to know about the doctor."

Leann couldn't help but whisper to her brother, "Is he the one who knows the doctor?"

"No but he might know about the humanoid who does."

The red haired guy nodded, "Well, when you can, inform her because we'll be meeting up with our contact soon." "Sure." Chris told him. The guy looked around then quickly changed into a calico cat and ran away from the group.

The night had started but before Randall decided to meet up with Sulley, Mike, and Fungus, he had to head over to Stallion's place. Since the fight with Scourge, he couldn't help but notice that the elderly monster was having a hard time keeping up with them and he was concerned. Hitching a ride on a passing truck, Randall jumped off when he saw the house in view. Stallion was inside, resting his head upon a large pillow as he tried to ease the slight tinges of pain that he felt from time to time. Celine heard a knock at the door, not sure of what to think, she slowly got up and opened it.

"Randall? I'm shocked that you're here, Stallion was going to meet up with you much later."

"I know but I need to talk to him, is he available?"

"Yes, of course, come in."

Randall saw Stallion resting there, "So that fight took more out of you than I thought."

The horse like monster lifted his head, "Well…I guess it shows that I'm not as strong as I once was in my youth. So you did seem to notice?"

"Yeah", Randall told him, taking a seat on the floor, "it was noticeable…you know, the guys can easily help me, if it's going to be a bit much for you then we can handle it."

While normally Stallion would protest, he had to agree with the younger monster this once, "I guess it is just as well…sometimes I wonder if Amethyst told me of her vision because in reality I needed your help more than you needing mine."

"That depends, is this the first vision of you being told of a monster to help you?"

"If memory best serves me, it is actually."

Randall nodded, but then he noticed the photograph of an older woman who looked a lot like Celine.

"Who is that?"

Stallion gave the picture a glance, "That was Celine's mother…she was my first true friend and also, the same child that had escaped into the factory when I used to work there. The place where I was banished was a forest that was near her home, I became her special friend and remained so until she became a mother herself. After that, I left her to search for a way back to my world and to confront Henry once again…After searching for some good time, I came back to her home but when seeing Celine, she reminded me so much of her mother. She left a journal for her daughter that told her of me in hopes that I may return if I found what I was looking for…I developed a special bond with her, just like I did with her mother but not willing to stay in one place, we had moved. The city that we moved to had reports of unusual crimes and that was when I discovered that there were monsters who were careless when it came to the humans. While I have taken it upon myself to dethrone every tyrant that comes our way, I still do hope to find a way back to our world."

Randall looked at him, "If you were to return home and confront Waternoose, what would you do then? I mean, getting revenge is somewhat understandable but it won't change what happened to you. It won't change who he is as a monster and chances are, you would get in worse trouble if he were to, you know, end up dead."

"I have thought about that numerous times and if I shall be honest to you, I have no idea what I would do if I were to confront Henry once again…maybe I would try asking him as to why he felt that having me banished was necessary. I considered him a friend and while the thought of a human child was a world wide threat to our kind, I would have been willing to keep the secret out of the sake of our friendship."

"That's one thing."

Stallion then felt that he needed to ask, "Tell me Randall, if you could go back and change all of what happened to you, would you take the opportunity and do so?"

The reptilious monster thought for a bit, "Well…I don't know. If what happened to me didn't happen then I would have never met Lillian, she wouldn't be my friend. Chances are that I still would be a bit of a jerk from time to time and have the mentality that my career was all that mattered…but I guess when you put it that way then maybe I wouldn't change what happened…what about you?"

Stallion sighed, "I would be feeling the same way as you, if I didn't experience all of that then it's true that certain friends I hold dear I would have never met but as you said, when put that way then what happened may sound better than it not happening."

Randall nodded in response, "So as I said, you can take it easy because we'll handle it."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes, trust me, Sulley's a pretty strong guy, Fungus is smart, and Mike is a pretty annoying guy. We have all the basics covered so we'll handle this. If things do get out of hand for whatever reason, we'll call you." Getting up to his feet, he gave a smile to Celine, "Take care of the old timer while I'm gone, will ya?" "You know that I will." she said, returning the smile.


	19. Chapter 19

MI characters belong to Pixar/Disney, my characters are mine, and lyrics property of Sugarland for this chapter.

Chapter Nineteen

_Why don't you stay? I'm down on my knees, I'm so tired of being lonely, don't I give you what you need? When she calls you to go, there is one thing you should know. We don't have to live this way, baby, why don't you stay?_

_-Sugerland_

Randall waited outside as usual for the guys to come out but to his surprise, he only saw Sulley and Fungus. Once they joined him, he had to ask, "Okay, where's Mike?"

"He had plans, he's taking Celia out for the evening." Sulley told him.

"Well that leaves us one monster short then."

As they decided to take their investigation towards downtown of West Port, Fungus couldn't help but start talking. "You know that Kevin decided to give a girl a rose for Valentine's day."

"Yeah", Randall remarked, "Morgana got it."

"Oh really! What did she say about it?"

"Well, she's not exactly thrilled but I'm sure she'll be fine."

"Ah, well, it's good that Kevin doesn't know that I know who she is or he would be bugging me to find out about what she said but you know, it's the thought that counts."

As the group passed by an apartment, suddenly someone dropped down onto Randall. Fungus almost started screaming but Sulley quickly covered his mouth. The reptilious monster grumbled as Candi sat on top of him, "Hello, lizard boy!"

"What do you want?"

"Just seeing what you're doing." she sweetly answered.

Lifting his body, he glared at her, "Get the hell off of me!"

"O-K!" Without hesitation, Candi jumped off as she then noticed that there was only two other monsters, "Hey, where's Mr. bouncy eye ball?"

"Mike's on a date with his girlfriend." Sulley answered her, putting slight emphasis on the word girlfriend.

"Oh, whatever" then she got very close to Randall's face, "Speaking of dates. Do you know what today is?"

"Valentine's day." Randall dryly answered.

"Yep! So…did you have plans for tonight because I thought that maybe we should try to help progress our relationship by having a special Valentine's day evening!"

"What relationship? I already told you that we're not together so how can we progress a relationship when we're not dating!"

"You're so funny! So how about it, lizard boy?"

He honestly didn't know what to do but then, he suddenly came to a realization and gave her a sly grin, "Alright…yeah, most definitely. You know, a date sounds like an excellent idea."

"It does?" she excitedly asked.

"Yeah, in fact, why don't we have it at your place. So, if you head back there then I'll be over in a bit."

"O-K! I'll put on something extra sexy just for you." she mischievously answered.

"Great, excellent, but like I said, I'll meet you there."

Candi was so excited that she transformed into her wolf form and ran back towards her place. After a few minutes, Sulley glared at Randall, "You're not heading over there, are you?"

"Nope. Let's go."

"Randall…won't she be pretty upset?" Fungus added.

"She's young, she'll get over it. Besides, she'll probably get bored and find one of her male escorts to keep her company."

"So where's Stallion at?"

Randall was a little hesitant but answered, "He's still kind of feeling it from that fight with Scourge so I told him that we could handle it." Sulley agreed, it made sense considering Stallion's age, "So where are we heading?"

"The old West Port Zoo, it's pretty massive but it's where Scourge stays but we need to be careful. His little dog pack also stay there so watch yourselves."

Inside of one of the few elementary schools, Scourge had been going through the hallways and just entered a classroom. Judging from the small child like feel and the very bad drawings upon the walls, the room belonged to an early grade around maybe first or even second. He wasn't sure of what he was looking for but then he noticed that on one wall in large letters was 'My Own Animal'. More than likely it was an assignment, he looked at the drawings but then he saw one in particular that immediately caught his eye. It was a picture of a little girl with a large blue like creature, in fact, the creature looked a lot like Sullivan. He pulled the picture down from the wall and studied the it closer. The creature was blue with purple spots and had a pair of horns on its head with small spikes going down the tail. The girl had a title that her animal was called the Horned Kitty but that wasn't all that he saw, the name was the biggest detail. The girl's first name was Mary…the same name of the child that Weasel had said. Heading over to the desk, he pulled open a drawer and looked through a few files. He found that there was only one student named Mary and listed on the file was her information, info of contact, and even where the little girl lived. He scanned over the details of the address and recognized it, he knew exactly where this street was. "Well, well, so this is Sullivan's little Boo…I'm looking forward to meeting her." His lips curved into a sick grin as he decided to take the drawing with him, he wanted to applaud the little artist on her piece once he found her.

The three monsters stood on the other side of the chain linked fence, down below the steep hill was the old zoo. "There it is, remember what I said, stay together and keep your eyes open for dogs."

Randall walked over to a loose piece of the fence and pulled it open to allow room for the three to pass through. When they made it down to the bottom, they walked through the main entrance and continued to walk towards the large building titled the Visitor Center. They entered inside and as they slowly made their way towards the middle, none of them noticed how one of the strays had spotted them. The dog quietly walked along the upper floor until he noticed that these monsters smelled very different from the master. Fungus then froze as he slowly muttered, "Randall…is that one of the dogs you were talking about?"

At the top of the stairs was the stray dog but it just sat there, staring at the three.

"Oh shoot…don't make any sudden movements or he'll…"

Then the dog got to its feet and started barking up a storm, other barks could be heard from coming down the hallways of the zoo. "Crap! Run!" Randall told them. The three monsters immediately darted down another hallway when the pack with Butch in the lead followed right behind.

Scourge glared at the small house, it wasn't much to look at but it was the right address so he wasn't complaining. He peered through the windows until he finally found one that had within it toys and other child like things along with a child's bed. Using the tips of his claws, he was able to pull the large window up allowing himself entrance. His shadow looming over the bed, sleeping soundly was a little girl but she slightly stirred. When she opened her eyes, she saw the large shadow upon the wall, immediately she got up but there was nothing there. Not sure if maybe whatever it was might have been underneath her bed, she decided to check as her brown hair hung over her face but once again, she saw nothing.

"Hello Boo."

The little girl gasped as she looked over towards her window, sitting on all fours was Scourge.

"What did you say?" she asked him.

"Boo…that's what he told me to call you."

"But…only Kitty called me Boo, he said it's my nickname."

Kitty huh, so that was what she called Sullivan, "Kitty told me that you would probably know about that…so then you must be Mary."

The little girl was surprised, "Who are you?"

"I'm a friend of Kitty's, he's in danger and he wanted me to come and get you so you could save him."

"Kitty's in trouble! What kind of trouble?"

"An evil monster has captured him and he told me to ask for your help, he said that you could save him from the evil lizard."

The little girl got out of her bed and dug through the bottom drawer of her dresser, pulling out old drawings from when she was little, "You mean him?" It was a kid's drawing that actually looked a lot like Randall, this was even better, "Yes, do you know him?"

"Yeah, that's the bad lizard man, Mike would sometimes tell me the story of how I helped beat him but he was not very nice."

"You're not scared of him, are you?" Scourge questioned her. She quickly shook her head, "No way, he don't scare me! You have to take me to Kitty, we have to save him!"

Scourge couldn't believe how well this plan was going, the child was convinced that he was Sullivan's friend but this worked out to his favor, "Of course but maybe you should get dressed first." The little girl quickly ran to her closet to get a pink shirt and a small pair of jeans. She pulled on her shoes but took her time tying them, she was still having a slight bit of trouble with that. Then she pulled on her pink headband and with Scourge's help, climbed onto his back. He leapt out the window and decided to run back towards the old zoo.

Randall, Sulley, and Fungus had made it back to the metal fence and squeezed their way through and kept running. Once on the other side, the dogs didn't chase them any further since the whole point was to get them out of their territory. The three monsters had decided to play it safe and take a short break within an alleyway.

"They didn't follow us?" Sulley asked, a little surprised.

Randall started to calm his breathing, "No, they just wanted us out of there."

When it seemed that they had calmed down, Randall's fronds gave a slight twitch, "Wait…someone's nearby."

"A human?" Fungus panicked.

"No…it's not human, in fact, it seems like they're above us, on that roof."

The three monsters exchanged glances as they decided to use the fire escape and make their way up. At the top, they peered over the edge of the brick and what they saw was pretty shocking. There was a large group of monsters but they were the same type of monster as Candi. There were both males and females, all different ages and fur colors. A muscular built male stood in the center of the whole group, his fur was a brown color while his eyes were jade green.

"Okay…so we're all accounted for?"

Members of the group nodded in response, "Excellent. This here is Samuel, he's the one who knows the doctor personally and he says that this human can finally fix us."

"How is he so sure?" a female asked.

Samuel who had silver fur and ice blue eyes, simply smiled at the female, "I can understand your skepticism but I've befriended and helped this human for quite some time and I'm confident that he's found the secret to giving us what we want. A chance to finally feel complete and be accepted, to not fear for our lives and live in peace here amongst the humans. He has developed a special serum and if his calculations are correct, it will make us human once and for all."

"When can we get it? Should we go and see him now?"

"The reason why I've asked for you to come is so I can see just how large of a group we have so that way, he'll know just how much he'll need so there will be enough for everyone. Is this the whole group?" Samuel asked.

"There is another although I don't think she knows about us but I will get a chance to tell her after this." Chris pointed out. A young male glanced towards the edge and saw the three monsters peering over, "Outsiders!"

The group then backed away as Randall along with Sulley and Fungus climbed onto the roof. Some of the monsters showed a slight hint of fear while others growled or glared at the three. The leader of the group came forward, "What are you monsters doing here? You're not wanted here and unless you're looking for a fight, I suggest that you turn back around and get lost!"

Randall was still trying to get over the shock of seeing so many other monsters like Candi, "Where did you all come from? The only one I've seen is Candi, seriously who are you all?"

"Who we are is none of your damn business but from what you're saying, you have seen one of our kind before." the leader answered him.

"You called us outsiders, you're monsters like us so what gives?" Randall asked him.

"Outsiders is the term that we have for your kind, we are monsters but we are not considered the same as you!"

"And what kind is that?" Randall sternly asked.

"We are humanoids! According to old scriptures of the beginning, there were two different species known as the man and the mon. Man was of course humans while the mon was of course monster kind. The two were similar but still very different but a forbidden love between a man and mon resulted in a mixed species that many coined the name of humanoid. Neither considered human nor monster, it was difficult for them to find a place amongst either species but when it was discovered that the humanoid could camouflage and blend in with others, it made life a little easier but not by much. Monsters were bewildered and hated this trait, hating our appearance because we were just furry versions of humans but the humans were different…our ability was hidden from them and being able to look like them, we found a place to belong. When the monster world was first created, some humanoids chose to stay amongst the humans while most decided to travel to the new world, hoping that maybe a new world meant a new outlook. Do you know what our ancestors discovered?"

Randall wasn't sure if he was supposed to answer and kept his silence.

The leader continued, "We discovered that it didn't matter where we chose to live, monsters would ridicule us, torment us, and judge us based upon our appearance and our past and origin. When scaring technology was developed, many humanoids used that chance to escape back into the human world but having monster blood run through our veins meant that we aged at the same rate as other monsters. This made living amongst the humans a little harder because moving around and changing who we are is part of the life that we have chosen…but that is about to change."

"Change? How?"

"A very kind and loyal doctor has discovered the cure for us, we will become perfect beings and soon." The humanoids took this as a cue to leave as they soon all scattered away from the three monsters. "A doctor, they meant a human doctor? How in the world can a human change who they are?" Sulley asked. "I don't know but I've got a bad feeling about this." Randall remarked.

Almost as if the day before had never occurred, the school had pretty much returned to normal but not everyone was so happy. Candi sat while barely touching any of the food on her tray, Brendan watching her during her little episode.

"I did tell you that he would probably stand you up…and yet, you don't listen to me." He was expecting a response but got nothing out of her. "I'm sure that he's not the first dumb ass to do this, right?"

She still didn't say anything, he sighed as he decided to ask, "So, you going to ask the damn reptile why he stood you up at least?"

Candi blinked as she looked at him confused, "What?"

Okay, now she was responding, "Yeah, you know, go over to him later and actually ask him, get some freaking answers. If some girl had the gall to do that to me then that's what I would do. If all you're going to do is mope around and cry about it then nothing gets done, if you at least show him that you're pissed off about what happened then at least he'll be aware of how stupid that was to stand you up."

When Candi thought about what he said, it made sense, in fact she was pretty pissed off. It wasn't fair, she wanted nothing more but an evening alone with Randall and he agreed to that. Why the hell he never showed up was anyone's guess.

"You know what, you're right! That is exactly what I'm going to do later tonight, I want answers and he better be man enough to give them to me!" Just as she popped a carrot stick into her mouth, the bell rang to her surprise, "Lunch is already over, isn't it?"

"Yeah…it kind of is." Candi sighed, she was moping so much during lunch time that she had moped the whole way through lunch. Looked like she was going to have to wait until after school before she could get a bite to eat. Sometimes when you're feeling certain things such as hunger then time seems to pass by so much slower. Eventually, three thirty rolled around and once again students were free from the confines of the building.

As Candi started to walk down the sidewalk, Brendan asked, "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to ask Randall, remember?"

"You're going to have to wait til later tonight then, we have that report due and I believe it was you who told me that you would get a start on the damn thing today."

She realized he was right, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Okay, we'll go to the library and then I'll ask Randall later tonight."

The hours had passed and soon night fell, Candi during the time became more angry when her thoughts went to yesterday and how she waited and waited for Randall to show. Walking side by side, Candi and Brendan made it over to the old house. She took a deep breath as they entered, once inside she then changed back to her usual form. Standing inside the doorway leading into the music room, she waited until Randall had noticed she was there. Randall could see that she was pretty pissed, nervously he started to ask, "Hey…so, why are you here?"

"Do you remember what you said that you were going to do yesterday?"

Randall shot a glance over at Sulley but he shook his head, almost as if saying sorry but you're on your own on this one. Looking back towards Candi, "Yeah, I…I do, I was supposed to meet you yesterday."

"That's right and you didn't! Why didn't you?"

"Well I…got a little caught up so I wasn't able to make it."

"He's probably lying." Brendan told her.

"Did you decide to stand me up, on Valentine's day of all days? I thought we had something special?" she cried. Okay, enough was enough, Randall started to yell, "Look, we are NOT together, we never were together in the first place! So you know what, I did lie to you, I was never going to head over there period, happy?"

An awkward silence had filled the room, Candi immediately decided to confront him, "If you didn't want to come over then you should have said so!"

"Well I've tried doing this numerous times but you never get it!"

"Any guy would have easily jumped at the chance to be with me, why wouldn't you!" she yelled.

"Why? You are honestly asking me why? Of course any guy would jump at the chance to be with a girl if all she acts like is some kind of stupid slut!"

Right as he said that word, Candi out of anger slapped him across the face but due to her claws, it was more of a slash then a slap. Four thin lines of blood started to form as he looked back at her, she was so angry that she nearly tried again. Quickly to avoid getting hurt further, he grabbed her by the wrists and held her back.

"I'm not stupid! Don't call me stupid!" She screamed at him.

She tried to pull out of his grip but he was stronger than she realized and soon she started to growl and scream, hanging her head there as she slowly gave up her struggle. Then she did something that he would never expect, "Why do you hate me", she screamed.

Shocked by what he just heard, Randall didn't know what to say or even how to react back to her...he couldn't match eye contact as he looked slightly away, still holding her by her wrists.

"Please...just tell me...why do you hate me?", she repeated as she slowly came to tears, "Why? What is it that I have to do in order to get you to love me, what is it I have to be...what is it that you want? Just tell me, is it how I look? Is it because you expect something more from me than what I'm trying? Whatever you want me to do, whatever you want me to be, hell, if you want me to look different, if you even have some sort of twisted fetish that you prefer from girls...I can be that, I can be everything you want me to be, anything you want I can do, whatever you like is no problem for me...please...tell me what I have to do in order to make you love me!"

He was silent as she continued to cry, her body feeling so heavy due to all of the anxiety that was felt.

"I don't hate you."

She looked at him in shock, not sure if she heard right.

"It's not you that I hate...it's just your lifestyle...that's what I hate..." T

hat was mainly it, the way she chose to live, that was what made him so angry at her all the time, "I'm sorry if how I live isn't up to your standards…I'm not perfect, you know."

"Doesn't mean that you have to sleep around." he told her.

"Yeah, but this is my choice, isn't it? It's my body that's going through this and you really don't have the right to tell me what to do!"

She was able to find an ounce of strength to pull out of his grip as she ran out of there, leaving the others in the room feeling as shocked as to what had just happened. Brendan didn't say a word as he took his leave to go after her before she ran too far. It was quiet until they heard the slamming of the door, then Lillian broke the silence, "Randall…why did you do that?"

"I didn't know how else to get her to leave me alone."

"Yeah but standing her up like that? You told her that you were going to meet her for a date but you never had any intention too. That's a pretty selfish thing to do just to get her to leave you alone."

"Look I'll…after we deal with Scourge then I'll try to make it up to her, somehow."

"And how long could that take? You guys have been hunting him for months now and you still haven't caught him yet. It might take a lot longer then you realize, I honestly think that Candi was pretty hurt by what you did. Something tells me that she'll definitely leave you alone now especially after all of that."


	20. Chapter 20

MI characters owned by Pixar/Disney, my characters belong to me, lyrics property of Linkin park.

Chapter Twenty

_Do you feel cold and lost in desperation? You build up hope but failure's all you've known. Remember all the sadness and frustration and let it go, let it go._

_-Linkin park_

Candi had found her way to the roof of the old warehouse, the place where she had her first battle against Randall. She had cried herself dry, wondering to herself that if things were different between the two in some way but besides what he told her.

"So, did you get over that outsider?"

Candi looked up when she heard this voice, she hadn't heard that term outsider since she had left home. Looking behind herself, she saw three humanoids but recognized them as the three she had seen running upon the rooftops.

"Why do you want to know?" She asked their leader.

Chris simply walked next to her side, "Just asking, surprised that you would even take an interest outside of your species like that."

Candi looked away from her gaze, "Well…guess it just shows that clearly I was a little naïve to think that he would ever love me."

Chris shrugged, "Oh well, you could do better, in fact humans are much better when it comes to dating anyway."

"Yeah but dating humans is iffy because long term relationships are hard to maintain since we age much slower than they do." Candi reminded her.

"Well, word on the street is that could be a thing of the past."

Candi wasn't sure if she heard right, "Huh, what do you mean?"

"My friends and I traveled all the way here because rumor has it that a human doctor has figured out the secret to making us perfect beings, to make us fully human. He's developed a serum that's designed to change what is monster in us and allow the human part to take over. Sure it takes away our transforming ability but to be able to live without ridicule and torment, I'm willing to give up a simple parlor trick for that."

She couldn't believe it, Candi like most other humanoids loved the idea of becoming fully human, she would be willing to give up anything to become that.

"So, when do we get to meet this doctor?"

"The doctor is going to give us the serum tonight, if you're interested then I can show you the way there, it's a little hard to find since he lives within this downtown district." It was decided then, getting up to her feet, she didn't hesitate, "Okay then, let's go." Chris nodded as a sign of understanding and waved for her to follow, the four humanoids quickly ran by rooftop to their location.

Scourge was taking watch over little Mary, she seemed to be oblivious to the fact that he actually had kidnapped her and had no intention of returning her home. Of course, that didn't fool her parents because Scourge knew that there were already missing children signs popping up around the city. Damn, now he knew that they wanted their child back but he needed her for a reason. This little girl would be his ticket to get it straight through Sullivan's head to lay off. Well, that was the plan assuming at what age she was when Sullivan had stopped visiting her and if he would recognize her at all. The only other issue was trying to fool the child, when they made it back yesterday she had already fallen asleep but early in the morning she was up and ready to save Kitty. It took him awhile to explain to her that since he was a monster, he could only go out at night so the dogs kept her company during the day while Scourge slept. He wasn't planning to hold onto her long, once she served her purpose then he would get rid of her. Hating children enough as he did, it wasn't easy trying to pretend to be a friend to the girl but for now, he was managing. He looked over to see her napping with Butch right by his side, disgusted by the sight, he tried to remind himself that Butch did used to be a pet so this was probably nothing too strange for him. Scourge figured that he would give it another night before seeing if he had grabbed the right kid but considering all that she was saying, sounded like he did.

They finally made it and as Chris had suggested, they had transformed into the human forms that they preferred. The old building didn't look like much but the inside had looked better than the outside, once inside they were in a pretty large laboratory. There in the middle of a room administering shots was an older man, he looked to be in his forties.

"I found her." Chris remarked.

The doctor after he had finished with the humanoid looked up and smiled, "Ah, another one, splendid, come in, I was just finishing up here."

"That's him." Chris told Candi.

She quietly walked over to him, "So, you're the one with the magic potion stuff?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it magic but yes, I'm the one with the cure as you humanoids want to call it."

"How did you find out about us anyway?"

"Well, Samuel over there has been my neighbor and also, one day I had accidentally discovered his little secret of which I have kept for the past ten years or so. Seeing the type of struggle that your kind goes through, I wondered to myself if it was possible to devise something to help you gain what you all seem to seek, the permanent change to being human. He helped me in my experimentation here or there by allowing me to take blood samples and in exchange, I promised him that he would be given the serum if I was successful."

"So why share it?" Candi asked.

"Why? Well my dear, I wasn't just doing this for him, I wanted to find a way to help all of you so as you can see, word spread pretty fast."

Chris walked over and took a seat, as the doctor rubbed a slight bit of alcohol before giving her the shot. Candi watched as the doctor did the same to Leann and Eli before it was her turn. When she sat down, the doctor further explained, "Now, remember, once I give this to you then you must stay in this human form. The serum is designed to shut down your transforming ability and fill in the necessary gaps within your DNA, alright?"

She nodded to show that she understood, sitting through the slight sting of pain as she saw the green liquid disappear from the syringe as it entered her.

"So, when will it start working?"

"It will start working pretty quickly I would hope, certainly within a day or so it will complete the task at hand but I would say that you should go about your daily life as usual." Candi was pretty excited as she looked at the tiny puncture in her arm, she was finally going to be perfect and human, just like all of those models in her magazine clippings she hung on her walls.

The next day seemed pretty ordinary, Candi got up, went to school, went through the day and acted pretty normal. When Brendan had demanded an explanation as to where she had gone off to last night, she decided to go ahead and tell him. At first he thought that she was joking but when she reassured him that it was no joke, he couldn't believe that she would agree to that. He was convinced that this doctor was a hack but when he demanded that she change back…to their surprise she couldn't. Candi tried for a good twenty minutes to change back but when it became clear that it was impossible, it changed a lot of things. It started to make the two question about where this left them now, Candi would no longer be fighting monsters anymore so now what? Did this mean that they would have to resort to actually being friends or even be dating for real? Along with that, he didn't understand why out of all the forms that she chose, why look like a teenager? He knew that she had dropped out of high school and never had the chance to experience that but in reality she was supposed to be older than him but now she wasn't? Nothing was making sense anymore but now that she was human, developing a type of love like relationship with other monsters wasn't going to happen, she couldn't pretty much.

As another day had passed, Candi did one of the few things that she really didn't do much as a human, she decided to go to bed. Now human, she really didn't have a reason to hang out nearly all hours of the night despite that doing this and getting little hours of sleep had practically made her an insomniac but as a human, her body quickly adjusted. Randall, unaware of this, only took notice to the missing child fliers that he spotted here or there. As they had done on a previous night, the four monsters were outside the fence of the old West Port Zoo.

"We're going back?" Fungus nervously asked.

"Well, you guys are going back, this is my first time." Mike added.

"There are missing child fliers popping up around the city, something tells me that Scourge has something to do with that missing child."

"Think she might be alive?" Sulley asked him.

"I don't know but that's asking quite a bit to hope that she might be."

The four monsters squeezed through the slightly large gap and made their way down. They entered the Visitor center but this time, they immediately noticed a lot of dogs within the area but all they did was watch them, making no noise at all. Randall didn't feel good about this, it was almost like they were waiting for the monsters to show. Finally they made it to the middle of the building, the largest space of any of the buildings. There Scourge was, standing there with his typical dark grin, "Nice to see you guys could make it. I was hoping that you would show."

Randall then felt something under his feet as he looked down, a piece of paper was just right there. Picking it up, he turned it over to see that it was a child's drawing of a little girl and what looked like…Sulley? Sulley pulled the paper out of his hands and seemed to get paler as he stared at it, the drawing was of him but only one child would know about him at all! Then Butch entered the room while a little girl rode on his back, when she saw Sulley she excitedly jumped off but then Butch grabbed her by the back of her shirt.

"It's funny Sullivan…I honestly thought that the only pathetic monster was Randall but you proved me wrong…you know this little brat, don't you?"

"Boo?" Sulley whispered.

"Kitty, you're okay!"

Sulley wanted to run over there and hug her but the dogs started growling and some even took a few steps towards the group. Randall could tell what this was, "Okay…what do you want?"

"Simple, call off your hunt for me and she returns home, safe and sound."

"How do we know if you'll stick to your end of the bargain?"

"Like I said, quite hassling me and she returns home!"

Randall shook his head, "No…I don't trust you, you hate children enough as it is and I don't put it past you to get rid of her, you better hand her over, now!"

"Why do you have to make shit difficult?"

Scourge growled a response and the pack reacted, giving chase and forcing the monsters to get backed into a corner. Scourge grabbed Mary and flung her onto his back, running off within the dark hallway. Butch joined the other dogs who continued to fight and attack the monsters. Sulley and Randall did what they could to fight them back while trying to help protect themselves and Mike and Fungus as well. Randall whipped a dog to the ground, "We have to go after him!"

Sulley grabbed one and tossed it to the left, "There's too many dogs, we all won't be able to out run them and chase down Scourge too!"

"Then one of us should go!" Randall yelled as he kicked another dog.

Sulley then saw a dog pounce on Randall but he quickly grabbed it and threw it over, "Then get going!"

"What? It would make sense for you to go, you're stronger!"

"You know Scourge better than we do, you know what he's like and what he'll do, you have a better chance of outsmarting him."

"But the dogs?"

Sulley hit one with his tail, "We'll keep them busy here, you get going before it's too late!"

Randall understood as he quickly darted through the pack and on Scourge's trail. The dogs turned their heads in his direction but then one was hit in the head by a small pebble. It turned back towards the direction that the pebble came from, "Come on you mangy mutts, what are you waiting for", Mike shouted at them. The pack, as if they could read thoughts, jumped in unison and pounced immediately within their direction.

Scourge continued to run but was having a hard time because Mary was constantly yelling in his ear. "There's Kitty! We have to save Kitty! Stop, where you going?" Finally having enough of this, he skidded to a halt and tossed the child right off. She landed hard on her back and stared up in confusion, "Kitty is in trouble!"

"I don't fucking care!"

Now the child was frightened, he never acted like that before, what happened to him? Scourge stood upon his legs, allowing his shadow to cover the child within a form of darkness, "I have had it! Even a bastard like me can stand a brat like you for so long!"

Mary, despite her young age, was starting to connect the dots and soon realized, "You're not friends with Kitty."

He only stared at her, "No, you think? It took you long enough but eventually, your pint size brain figured it out!"

"I want to go home!" she screamed.

"Oh you'll be going home but trust me, your parents won't be happy when you return home…do you know what a nightmare is, little girl?"

"Yeah, it's a bad dream." she answered him.

"Well…of all the nightmares that you have had, I am the worst…but don't worry, it won't take long, it won't hurt as much as you think. Some of the shit that I've put others through, some were just begging to die, some begged for me to end their lives just so that it wouldn't hurt anymore, the pain…I'm actually planning to go a little easy on you and maybe, you should consider yourself lucky…"

Mary immediately got to her feet and ran, she ran as fast as her little legs could carry and pushed open a door that led into the center's cafeteria. Scourge just shrugged, "Sure, you can run, I could use the exercise but it's not like you can outrun me, you're pretty damn stupid to think that you can."

Scourge entered the cafeteria and looked around, the old tables and chairs didn't help him in finding her but he didn't need sight to spot her.

"Where are you? Come on out, make it a little easier on us both…"

Mary was hiding underneath a round table, she was trying so hard to not breathe very loud but due to how scared she was, it couldn't be helped. Then she saw his legs right next to her table, he extended his claws underneath. Looking around for anything, she saw an old metal fork and grabbed it. Scourge felt a sting of pain as he pulled up his claw and screamed, allowing the child a chance to run from him again.

Growling as he stared at the utensil, he pulled it out and tossed it aside, "I was going to go easy on you…now you're asking for it! Run all you can brat! I WILL FIND YOU!"

Mary had ran to a second pair of entrance doors and pushed very hard to open them, she continued to run but she hit something hard. Falling on her butt, she looked up to see that it was Randall, the one she knew as the lizard man! He was just as shocked to see her, and for a few seconds she wasn't sure of what to do. Then she heard Scourge pounce through the doors, she didn't give it another thought as she immediately got up and wrapped her arms around Randall, hoping that he could protect her. The two monsters exchanged glances and quickly, Randall picked Mary up, tossed her on his back and bolted out of there.

"!" Scourge screamed as he ran after the two.

"Hang on", he told the child, not even bothering to look back, "Just hang on, okay?"

Mary held on as tight as she could, looking back out of fear, terrified as she watched Scourge chase them. Randall tried climbing up a stone pillar but Scourge, though unable to climb, plowed his claws into the concrete. The structure started to shake and even crumble, Randall jumped and continued to run once more. He knew that Scourge wasn't this strong, he had to be going on full adrenaline! Then he was back into the main lobby and surprised to see that the whole pack was on the ground, the dogs were panting and whining.

"Guys, time to run now!" Randall screamed at them.

Sulley picked up Mike and Fungus and took off as Randall soon caught up to them. They had to get out of there and fast, Scourge was gaining on them and who knew what he was going to do once he did! Ignoring the dogs on the ground, Scourge bolted right past them and kept at the chase. It wasn't long before all the monsters were outside, they scrambled to squeeze through the fence but then Randall got himself stuck. He handed Mary to Sulley but then suddenly, he felt a grip on his tail and his body was being pulled with such force, he was struggling to keep a grip on the fence and ground. Sulley grabbed onto his arms and on his upper body, trying to pull him through the fence for them to be able to escape. Mary only continued to scream, afraid of what would happen to Randall if Scourge won this game of tug a war. Randall, trying to fight back, started to kick Scourge until finally a quick kick to his snout caused the wolf to let go. This allowed them a chance to finally pull Randall through and they ran off into the darkness. Scourge pounced onto the fence but seeing how far they were, he only roared into the night. A roar so loud and powerful that you could say that the whole city had heard it and were easily shaken.

The monsters needed to rest, the fact that they could have been killed didn't seem to dawn on them until much later. Mary, just as tired even though Sulley had carried her, plopped down on the ground and rested her head next to Randall's body. The reptilious monster was stunned for a few moments as he then glanced down at her, shocked to see her being so content next to him.

"Well, that's not something you see everyday." Mike joked.

"Does she even know who I am?" Randall asked them.

"Yeah she does thanks to Mike over here." Sulley added.

"Hey, every good story needs a villian, mine just happens to have two but she remembered you better than Waternoose."

"Well makes sense", Randall answered, "I was the thing that came out of her closet, I was her nightmare for the longest time. Naturally she would remember me better than those she doesn't know as well."

"After this experience, I won't be surprised to see her have a new nightmare instead." Fungus nervously stated. Randall understood, after all that happened to her, her nightmare would be seeing that horrible beast in her dreams. It made him wonder of what Scourge had done in order to lure her in like that, what kind of guise did he display to earn her trust. Well, whatever he had done, hopefully all of this would cause the wolf to not bother going after her again.

Randall smiled as he watched her in this calm state, "I guess she's forgiven me too…or at least that's as close to an 'I forgive you' as I'm going to get." After Sulley held her for a few moments, he handed her over to Randall in order to get her home as quickly as possible.

"Where do you live?" he asked.

"That way!" she answered, pointing forward. Fungus then saw one of the fliers on the wall near them, he grabbed the paper, "I think you're better off finding her house by her parents directions then hers."

Randall took the sheet, "Yeah, probably."

He then took off into the night, once he had Mary back home then he would return to the guys. He made it to the house and couldn't help but notice a lit window, inside were her parents crying within their living room. As he let down the child, he decided to remind her, "Remember that you can't tell them about us."

"Then what do I say?"

"Well…you could say that you were blindfolded the whole time and that you couldn't see anything but the guy didn't tie the ropes very tight or something and that you got out." She looked at him funny, almost like the credibility of that story wouldn't quite work. "Or maybe you can come up with something better than that, I'm old, my brain doesn't work the same as it used to."

She laughed at him, "Okay lizard man."

"You can just call me Randall." he told her.

She smiled at him, "You can call me Mary."

"Fair enough", he hugged her quickly, "Now you better get in there before they really get upset."

The little girl ran out to the front door and knocked on it very loud. Randall watched as the parents got up and went to answer it. When they saw who it was, both parents were overjoyed. Her mother scooped her up, showering her with kisses as her father hugged them both. Pleased with what he had done, Randall disappeared and headed back to where Sulley and the others were at.

It was early morning, almost five o' clock in the morning actually although the sun still hadn't risen yet. The humanoid Samuel was feeling horrible, he was sweating and he could feel jabs of pain shooting from his arm where he had received the serum. He struggled to stay up on his feet but with each blast of pain, he would either fall to his knees or barely be able to stand. Then he could feel his stomach practically churning, he fell to his hands and knees and started coughing up whatever he had within. When he opened his eyes to look down at the mess, what he saw had frightened him beyond anything. He saw a red liquid, feeling it spread and come into contact with his hands. It was blood…deep red blood…his blood! He started screaming as he nearly jumped back but once again, felt a sharp pain, he glanced down at his arm. The spot where he had been injected was starting to change from a slight purple to a black color, the veins changing to this same color, so easily they could be seen.

He screamed out loud, "What's happening? What's happening to me?"

Another jab of pain was his response, he tried to steady himself by leaning against the wall but he continued to cough up more of his own blood.

"Why? This shouldn't be happening! What's happening to me?"

Then he suddenly felt a strange numbness, his eye lids closed as his eyes rolled back into his head. His body dropped down to the floor, he started to shake. The shaking was slow at first but soon he shook faster and harder, his body was going into a seizure! Unable to control himself but feeling like a prisoner to his own body, he could feel the pain as his body now was becoming sore from two sources now. His head accidently hit against the brick wall, a cut now flowing with blood. His stomach seemed to be under attack as he spit up bits of blood during each shake that he endured. Then just as quickly as it all started, he suddenly stopped shaking. He was still as his breathing began to slow, it became so slow that each breath seemed to be seconds longer apart until finally he had breathed his last. The body laid there, alone within the darkness with no one to comfort him.


	21. Chapter 21

MI characters belong to Pixar/Disney, my characters are mine, lyrics property of Evanescence for this chapter.

Chapter Twenty One

_Perfect by nature, icons of self indulgence, just what we all need, more lies about a world that never was and never will be! Have you no shame? Don't you see me? You know you've got everybody fooled!_

_-Evanescence_

Candi felt tired this particular morning but she tried to ignore it, she was probably tired due to working so late on her homework. Being human wasn't as easy as she had thought but when it came down to it, she liked it much more than being what she was. So far, there was something very different about her and everyone else semed to feel it as well. Brendan, on the other hand, was still trying to accept that she was now a human. It was strange to him, almost surreal in its own way but it was the reality now. The two didn't discuss much with the exception of who gave her the serum and how it all occurred, where it all happened, and if there were others who did the same. While Brendan probably would never confont the human responsible, it just made him wonder if this man was this dedicated to improving life for these creatures that this was what he would be willing to do. The day seemed to pass by pretty fast and also, now since she was human, Candi had a lot of spare time to spend with her human friends. Well, now they were just her friends, she was human like them so they stood on even ground.

"So, how about the mall?" Carol asked.

"Yeah, there's this one top that I saw on sale and I have to get it." Alexa explained.

Candi was trying to keep up with this conversation but was having trouble, she was starting to break out in a sweat and her hands felt clammy. Then to her relief, the final bell rang and she could get herself out of this room. As the girls started going down the hallway, Candi then spotted the bathroom, "Hey, wait for me, I gotta go really quick."

The girls noticed that she was looking paler, "You okay", Alexa asked.

"Yeah, I'm totally fine, just give me a minute and then we'll go."

She went inside as she looked underneath the stalls to see them all empty but then she felt it, a sharp pain coming from her arm. She gripped the nearest sink as she then felt another jab of pain. Candi looked at herself in the mirror, it didn't take her long to realize that something was wrong. The pain was getting worse as her legs seemed to get weak and nearly give way. Then she felt her stomach nearly turn as she gripped her mouth and ran immediately to a stall. She coughed loudly and so much to where her throat was hurting now, she opened her eyes to see that she had coughed up blood into the toilet. Screaming she backed away but then the pain started again, then her body went limp. Dropping to the floor, her body was soon induced into a seizure and shook violenty upon the linoleum. The seizure only lasted for a few minutes but it quickly subsided but now, Candi had passed out from it.

Alexa started to get concerned, "Come on, we better see how she's doing."

The two girls went inside but nearly froze when they saw Candi lying there, passed out onto the floor. Carol lost it and started to scream while Alexa got down and tried to get Candi up.

"Hey", she screamed at Carol, "Call nine-one-one now! Don't just stand there, now Carol!" Snapping out of the fear, Carol pulled out her cell phone, fumbling with the buttons but finally able to dial them. "9-1-1, what is your emergency?" the operator asked.

"Hello, I go to the Jr. High and our friend is like passed out on the floor!" Alexa tried shaking Candi but still nothing, "Candi get up, please, come on, wake up!"

Brendan had been waiting outside about fifth teen minutes but he still didn't see the girls, then suddenly an ambulance rushed into the area. Two paramedics rushed out with a gurney and into the school.

"No…please don't let it be for her." Brendan mumbled to himself.

Unfortunately, his worst fear was realized as he soon saw the paramedics rush back out with Candi strapped down. He ran over to the ambulance as he saw Carol and Alexa run out.

"What happened?" he shouted at them.

"We found her passed out on the bathroom floor!" Alexa told him. Brendan tried to jump into the ambulance but the paramedic stopped him, "Who are you" he asked.

"I'm her boyfriend, please let me come with her!" he told them.

"Fine but you need to stay out of the way when we get there, got it!" the paramedic told him.

"Sure, that's fine!"

The ambulance rushed over towards the hospital, when they arrived, Brendan tried to do as they asked and gave them space to get her off and inside. The paramedics pulled her in as a woman doctor quickly ran to help, "What do we got", she asked.

"Young white female, about fourteen, student at the school called 9-1-1, said that she was found passed out on the floor of the school's bathrroom! We noticed that there was blood in the toilet and also, a strange black marking is on her arm!"

"Any signs of seizure?'

"We're not sure but so far, she hasn't yet."

"Damn, she's showing the same signs as the others. Alright, pull her into curtain four and get a tube in her, we need to keep her stable if we can!"

Brendan tried to follow but then one of the other doctors held him back, "You can't come in here!"

"But I'm with her, is she okay?"

"Like I said, let the doctors do their job and wait out here!"

Then he noticed that apparently the whole hospital was in a frenzy, Candi wasn't the only one here and there were other people who were also being checked. Some were having seizures, some were coughing up blood, the sound of machines could be heard as if the whole place had gone crazy. Then he heard a loud long beep as he looked over to see that the machine that Candi was hooked to wasn't beeping anymore.

"Oh shoot, come on, bring in the crash cart! We gotta get her heart starting again!"

Another doctor quickly grabbed the handles of the device, "Charge to one hundred! Clear!"

Candi's body bounced slightly but there was no heart beat.

"Charging to two hundred! Clear!"

Her body bounced again but after a few seconds, her heart started beating.

"We got her back, we need oxygen, keep her stable guys, we don't want to lose her!"

Brendan then heard commotion from another room as a woman in there was seizuring, the doctors doing what they could to keep her from causing more harm to herself. Another room had an older adult man whose heart had also stopped but unlike Candi, the crash cart wasn't working on him. The doctors tried nearly four times but no matter what they did, the man's heart wouldn't start.

The doctor for this patient had no other choice but to leave it be, "Time of death…fourteen forty five."

Brendan remembered that Candi had said that a group of humanoids had taken the serum and traveled all the way here to do so. He just had a feeling that the large number of people here in the hospital was due to them being humanoids. If they were going through what Candi experienced then that meant one thing, there was something wrong with the serum that they were given and it was possible that Candi could die as well.

He watched as the woman doctor decided to come towards him, "She's stable for now but we'll have to keep her here for monitoring to make sure that she doesn't get worse."

"Do you know what happened, why she fainted at school?" he asked her.

"We're not sure but we think that it could be some kind of outbreak but until we know for certain, your friend won't be going home any time soon."

News about the epidemic spread through the city like wildfire and worried many as the hours had passed and night finally fell. When Randall made it to Lillian's house, he had a hard time doing so because it sounded like the city had lost it with the sound of blaring sirens every once in awhile. He was shocked to see that her mother was gone pretty early but when he tapped on the window, there was no response. Climbing down, he then knocked on the front door and it opened allowing him entrance inside.

"What in the world is going on?" he asked.

"Some sort of epidemic, Mom got called in early because of what they're dealing with down there. People are dying and nobody knows why!"

"Really?"

"Yeah." Lillian showed him on the television screen.

The reptilious monster watched as a reporter talked about how people were mysteriously becoming very sick and dying with the number of survivors being very slim. Then Lillian's cell phone rang, "Hello? Morgana, hey! Did you get a chance to ask about…wait, what? Candi was taken in an ambulance, are you sure? Okay…yeah, I'm watching it right now! Okay, yeah, we'll talk tomorrow, bye."

"Candi's in the hospital?" Randall stammered.

Lillian looked up the number, "I'm going to find out about that right now."

Back at the hospital, Candi could feel something messing with her but suddenly she felt like something was being yanked out of her mouth. She coughed to wake up to the sight of Chris, Eli, and Leann in her room.

"What, what's going on? Where am I?" she asked.

"We're in the hospital but we gotta get out of here!" Chris told her.

"Where are we going?"

"We're going back to the damn doc, I don't know what he did but he has got to fix this, the damn stuff is wearing off."

Chris showed Candi her nails and they had changed back into humanoid claws, "We gotta get out of here before we change back completely!"

A phone rang as the nurse answered, "West Port Memorial, how may I help you? Oh yes, he's here."

She took the cordless phone over to where Brendan had been sleeping, shaking him gently she handed the phone to him, "It's for you, sweetie."

After giving a yawn, he took the phone from her, "Hello?"

"Brendan, it's Lillian. I know that I'm the last person you would expect to call you but I heard about what was happening on the news and Morgana told me that she saw Candi taken to the hospital, is she okay?"

"Yeah, she's resting right now, they almost lost her…but she's not the only one here", he got up and had his back to the reception desk, "I think that the other patients, the ones who came in and are dying, I believe that they're all humanoids! The same species of monster as Candi, she had told me about what happened when she got the shot."

"So wait, she had gotten a shot, where?"

"Some older man around the downtown area, she said that he lived in a rundown place but inside, it was a labatory. She said that he made this junk to make them human and she took it along with the others!"

Then a nurse ran over to the reception desk, "We got a problem, four of the patients from the outbreak case have gone missing!"

When Brendan heard this, it only meant one thing, Candi had gone missing but he couldn't help but fear for why. "Lillian, the nurses just said that Candi's gone! Tell Randall what I told you, he has to go looking for her!"

"Why would she run off?"

Randall, who had been listening, had to ask, "What happened?"

Putting her hand on the reciever, "Candi's gone missing from the hospital, Brendan wants you to go look for her!"

"Downtown area, right?" he asked.

"Yeah, downtown, please hurry, he's afraid that she's heading back to this doctor!"

Randall disappeared and with a slam of the door, was gone and on the search.

Candi, Chris, Eli, and Leann were having trouble especially since halfway through the trek, they had completely changed back. Along with that, news had spread that they had escaped the hospital and to their surprise, cops were nearly all over the place! Randall had an easier time and although he had opened up doors to about three empty buildings, he then noticed one that stood out a little around the outskirts. The door opened to reveal that inside was a laboratory setting, Randall suddenly reappeared to see that on top of a far table was a dead boy. An older man sat there, his head in his hands, almost as if he had been crying.

"Hey!"

The man looked up but didn't look surprised to see Randall, in fact, his experession on his face was hard to read.

"Are you the one who did this?" Randall asked.

"I'm so sorry, this wasn't supposed to happen, none of this was supposed to happen!"

"What's going on out there, what's happening to them?" Randall demanded.

"The serum wasn't designed to do this…it was only supposed to fill in the gaps and make them fully human!"

Randall couldn't tell if the man was talking to himself or actually to him, "What was this serum supposed to do?"

"Humanoids have different dna from that of other monsters, humanoids have certain genes that humans have but the monster genes within them is what makes them monsters. The serum is designed to numb the monster genes and overpower them with the necessary human genes that they lack! This would freeze their transforming ability and allow them to slowly become human!"

"Then what is wrong with them?" Randall asked, since what the man had explained made sense.

"Their immune system isn't taking well to the serum, it's recognizing it as something foreign and is doing whatever it can to stop it! The problem is that how the serum is designed and how their body absorbs it, their bodies are attacking themselves from the inside out!"

"Why is it that only four of them has survived and the rest died?"

"It's possible that depending on their age, their bodies have a stronger chance of pulling out of this then the others…Samuel was pretty old…he told me that he was actually in his fifties and the serum was too much for him…all I wanted to do was help them! I never wanted to kill them!"

Randall's fronds perked up and immediately he blended in, bursting through the doors was Chris and the others.

"You have got to fix this!" Chris yelled at him.

"What do you want me to do? It's obvious that the serum is flawed, so many lives have been lost already!"

"You're a doctor, fix it, make some new stuff, just whatever you have to so that we can become perfect again!"

"No! I'm not going to, please, the city is in chaos enough as it is!"

"You don't understand, you have to fix us now!" Chris yelled at him.

"There is nothing wrong with you!"

The group looked to see Randall reappear, "Do you think that taking a shot and becoming human will solve all your problems? Do you think that once you're human, all your problems will just disappear? Humans are not perfect either, they have problems just like we do. Taking this serum wouldn't change who you are, it doesn't change the fact that you are all monsters!"

Chris became furious with him, "You're no different than the other outsiders, you don't understand the sort of shit that we've gone through!"

"And that's another thing, this whole stupid thing of calling monsters, monsters like you outsiders? How does that make you better than them, the ones who ridicule you? Treating them how they treat you doesn't change anything!"

"You just don't get it, you fucking reptile, you will never understand!"

Chris had enough as she left with Eli and Leann following her but she looked at Candi, "You coming?"

Candi looked at them but then she looked back at Randall, "I…I'm not…sure."

"Don't forget that you are a humanoid! Where does your loyalty lie?" Chris asked her.

Candi thought about what she said but she wasn't sure of what to say, "I'm sorry Chris but this is my home."

Chris looked away from her, it was clear, "Fine…do what you want!"

The group of three took their leave into the night but Candi became concerned for the older man as he continued to cry next to Samuel's body. She wanted to talk to him but Randall touched her arm, almost as if saying that it was best to leave the man be, he was hurting enough. They left the man in silence as sirens and cop cars could be heard within the city of West Port.

It had been another month or so but Scourge's anger had not subsided, in fact, he had become entirely ruthless in nature. The more that Randall and the others had chased him, the more he fought back. His first plan of using the young Mary as ransom had completely fallen apart because despite all he had, the monsters had gotten her back. The dogs could feel his fury and agitation, some being so careful around him. There were times that Scourge would suddenly snap and lash out at some of them. Some of the more courageous dogs took the opportunity and left when they saw the chance. The pack soon dwindled to about a small group of fifth teen including Butch as lead dog. As he stared up into the starry sky, he felt another near him.

"Well…so this is the type of lifestyle for a banished monster?"

He looked up and couldn't believe what he saw, dressed in an orange jumpsuit was Henry J. Waternoose!

"What in the hell are you doing here?" Scourge asked.

"Ahh, Scourge…it's been a long time…if I remember, you were one of my best scarers back when you used to work for me. Do you remember those days, Scourge?"

The wolf like monster shot to his feet and grabbed Waternoose by his neck, growling with such intensity, "Your best huh? Really? Funny, that's not what you told me during the damn trial! That's not what you said when you watched my banishment, that wasn't what you said when you were interviewed about how one of your own employees could go on for so long infected! It's funny, I remember things a lot different than you!"

Waternoose stood there, showing no expression, "And of course, your little anger issue still hasn't improved at all."

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't kill you now!" Scourge demanded.

"I've been hearing the word amongst others banished here that you are having some monster trouble from a certain Mr. Boggs? Randall Boggs to be exact and his newest little helper, Sullivan."

Scourge could sense some slight sarcasm, "You know these two, don't you?"

"About four years ago, they were my top scarers but now, one is living free while the other has taken what I worked so hard to have and what do I get? Locked away for god who knows how long!"

"Heh, so even the great Waternoose can't buy himself out of everything, can he?" Scourge laughed. Releasing him, he had to ask, "So…let me guess, you want my help for what?"

"I want your help for a simple act of revenge, if we're successful we can get rid of them for good. You'll get your life back and I will have my biggest obstacle out of my way."

"That sounds good but we're going to need more help than just the two of us."

"Then we'll get some help…seems your old scaring assistant lives here, I believe that he could easily help us…also, it seems that the one dearest to my heart is also living here, she will be an excellent assest."

"They won't help us by choice." Scourge reminded him.

"Then we'll use the one thing that you're good at, by force."

"So…when do we start?"

"We'll need to bide our time, considering the scare that this city has gone through, it's best if we wait til the hysteria dies down."

The CDA were not in the best of shape at this moment, their hunt put into the hands of the current CEO wasn't happening as soon as they hoped and to add to that, Waternoose couldn't be found.

"Okay, agents, what have we got?" Roz asked.

Number 125 decided to speak, "Our evidence shows that Waternoose had escaped into a town within Oklahoma, the door he used wasn't even a normal closet door, it's a door for an apartment closet."

"Do we know if he's still there?"

"We've sent an agent to search for him, he's long gone, he may have traveled to a nearby state."

"Do we know how he got out?" she asked.

"He befriended and agreed to pay off one of the guards if he helped him escape. Once the guy brought him over to the factory, he knocked him out and left him there."

"Have we gotten any further information out of the guard?"

"No, Waternoose didn't tell him a lot of details of why he was escaping to the human world."

"Okay", she sighed, "Call Mr. Sullivan in the morning, we need to start forming a plan of capturing the murderer, I've given him long enough and it's time to end this case so we can make Waternoose top priority!"

Weasel was having a difficult time hunting all due to the ruckus and craziness that the city seemed to be going under. He then noticed some kind of rat, not the best looking but it was something. He chased the rodent but when it ran under a very low dumpster, it was out of his reach. Then he heard a strange growling and he looked behind him to see Butch.

"Nice Butch…hey, how, how are you?"

The dog growled and pounced, grabbing Weasel by the skin of his neck, dragging him along.

"Uh…I'm not sure if you're confused but I'm not a chew toy so could you please let me down?"

The dog ignored him as he continued to run, carrying the monster, Weasel tried to pull himself out of the dog's mouth but Butch growled in response.

"Okay, okay, easy! I guess we'll wait and see where we're going."

Butch had carried Weasel all the way back to the West Port Zoo, careful to keep a grip on the monster as he squeezed through the fence. When Butch made it to the middle of the visitor center, he set the monster down. Weasel looked up to see that right there was Scourge and Waternoose, somehow he wasn't sure whether he needed to feel afraid or confused. Weasel started to back away but heard Butch growl from behind him, "Ahh, okay, I'm not going anywhere!"

"Hey there Weasel, my good old scaring buddy!" Scourge stated, almost as if he was mocking him.

"What do you want? I told you about the kid, what more do you need!"

"I thought that maybe you would be willing to help us out, how about it? Like good old times?"

"I am not helping you! You made me a wreck because all you did was scare and torment me! I wasn't your scaring assistant, more like your scaring slave. Instead of using a similuator, you would scare me shitless to get yourself ready for the kids! I put up with your shit years ago and I don't need to do that anymore!"

Scourge seemed calm but grabbed the monster by the neck, pulling his face close to his, "I'm not asking you…I'm telling you, you WILL help us!"

Barely able to breathe, Weasel whispered back, "Okay…so what do you need me to do." Scourge's lips curved into a dark grin, that only left one other monster to seek for this plan and Waternoose knew how to convince her.


	22. Chapter 22

This chapter was a challenge in writing because it has alot of revelations in it...MI characters belong to Pixar/Disney, my characters are mine, lyrics property of Evanescence.

Chapter Twenty Two

_Watching me, wanting me, I can feel you pull me down, fearing you, loving you, I won't let you pull me down!_

_-Evanescence_

The school year always seems to be the type that lasts forever or at least until it starts to reach the end then sometimes, you're left feeling that it had gone by so fast. Students were preparing for their finals, paying off dues, and also getting ready for the summer. Of course, it wasn't all fun and games especially if you were the type to slack off. Candi, unfortunately, is one of those types but so far, her grades were pretty secure in all classes but one…algebra. She hated this class, all the different equations and using letters and junk, she hadn't done this stuff since the time she was in high school originally as a teenager. Back then, she wasn't any better at the stuff than she was now! She tried everything she could think of to understand it but it seemed that nothing was working so that left only one thing…tutoring. She was sitting in one of the math classes while some kid with glasses tried talking her through the different equations for the chapter that her class was covering.

The kid looked over at the clock, "Maybe we better call it a day, it's already five thirty."

"Huh?" Candi didn't even notice the time, she was here for nearly two hours!

"Okay, so remember to try the practice sheets and next time, I'll check it to see how you're doing on them, alright?" he asked her.

"Sure, no problem."

"Uh…one more thing Candi, you have been doing okay since when you…well, passed out and…"

"I'm going to tell you what I told everyone else, I'm just fine, in the end the doctors said that I checked out okay. Don't worry about me, alright?"

"If you say so."

As Candi walked out of the school, there was the limo with Brendan waiting for her inside. The driver opened the door for her, allowing her to get inside and sit next to Brendan. The two were pretty silent but considering what had happened to Candi, silence was actually a relief to her ears. Everyone else, both students and teachers, were constantly asking her if she was okay and how she was doing. The first ten people who asked her, she didn't mind but after the hundreth person, she really got tired of hearing those same questions. As for monsters, they acted towards her in the complete opposite. Instead of asking how she was doing, they chose to either be silent about it or just kind of avoid her. Although, despite what had happened, it did make her think. It made her wonder of exactly what she had become, it made her question just what the humanoids had become. She couldn't help but think about the words that Randall had said, how no matter what the humanoids tried they were still monsters. She wondered that maybe if what had happened, the deaths of the others was supposed to be some kind of lesson. She never was the type to believe in a higher power, not after all that happened to her. With how her life turned out, all the things she experienced, she normally wouldn't believe in that. In fact, if there was a more powerful force than for all she knew, what she had gone through could just be a sick joke to him. Well, at least she thought that it was a him, god was a male term whereas goddess was a female term. So…then for certain this God that some humans believed in had to be a guy, right? She thought that maybe there was a lot of truth to what Randall said, how they were no better with how they treated other monsters. Candi could see that maybe humans weren't all perfect and for some, those imperfections some would choose to hide. Other humans chose to change them by means of things such as sugeries, botox, and whatever else they could do to themselves. Some humans tried to just escape from these things through abusing substances such as drugs and alcohol. Very few chose to accept them or simply pretend that they didn't even see them. After what had happened, she stopped bugging Randall because in all honesty, she questioned why she did so in the first place. It was because she loved him, right? That was her reason but then why would he love her when she couldn't even love herself? The truth was that just like others of her species, she was ashamed of what she was. Was her kind really that shallow and empty inside, it started to seem like it from what she saw.

The limo stopped at the same corner that they would pick her up from in the morning, the one that was the closest to where she actually lived. Funny, she didn't even notice while she was lost in her thoughts. She got off and continued on foot from there, knowing the best route without being noticed. Brendan didn't say a goodbye, instead he remained silent in the vehicle while he watched her.

"Is something wrong, young master Brendan?"

"Huh?" he responded to his driver.

"Seems your thoughts are on something else, that is all."

"It's nothing."

"You certain, young master?" the driver asked.

"Yes, I'm sure, thank you for asking."

"Of course, young master."

In reality, there was a lot on his mind but telling your driver how your monster friend almost died in her attempt to become human isn't typical conversation. Brendan knew that Candi wanted to be human, he had known this for the longest time. It was part of that reason why he had suggested for her to attend school alongside him. He was tough on her sometimes but because of how silly she could be, sometimes he felt that he had to. Despite how harsh he could be, he did care for her…a lot more than he was willing to admit. While he normally saw monsters beneath him, Candi was an exception. Sure he had friends but when he honestly thought about it, he always had a feeling that his money was the reason why they stuck with him. Candi, on the other hand, didn't care about that so much really. It was possible that she could be the only true friend he had, the only one who stuck by his side when no one else would. If she would have died, if he would have lost her then what would he have done? That was one thing he didn't want to think about, not now, not ever.

Candi had arrived back at the large colliusim, the empty building was actually a beautiful sight although a sad one at the same time. She walked over to her bedroom, stepping inside as she noticed the interesting wallpaper of all the supermodels, actresses, and such that she had collected over the years. She wondered to herself if these humans were naturally this beautiful or instead they gained this beauty through artificial means. She placed a hand upon a picture of a blond woman for an underwear magazine ad. Then she grasped the picture and pulled it off the wall, letting it fall to the floor. Then she went ahead and grabbed the magazine ad next to that one and did the same. After awhile she started to use both her hands to pull off two pictures at a time. Then when that didn't seem to be working fast enough for her, she then moved onto grabbing by three pictures. Then four, then five, and so on. It wasn't long before she started grabbing some and even crumbling them up in her hands before tossing them to the floor. This continued until she had worked her way around her whole room, even going so far to move her bed and furniture to get the pictures behind them. It took her nearly an hour, give or take until all of the pictures were pulled off completely. Then she grabbed herself a trash bag and started dumping the pictures inside. Filling the whole bag, she tied herself a knot and decided to take it outside to the dumpster near her property.

She went back inside, to her room, she had never noticed that the walls were a dirty white color. Maybe she could paint them, probably ask Brendan if he could buy her some. What color could she paint them, now that is a good question. There are so many choices although magenta was always one of her favorite colors, wasn't there a cartoon character with that name? She couldn't remember, she knew that there was one named after the color blue. What show was that again? Nope, couldn't think of the name, oh well, that was okay. Then she heard a noise outside the dressing room, peering out into the center ring she saw that the spotlight had been turned on.

"Okay?"

She walked over to it, how it turned on was anybody's guess but apparently it did.

"Well…look at you, my have you grown."

She gasped, that voice, she knew it but she didn't want to think that it could be…

"Of course, it's been a couple of years since I saw you last…although I must say that you aged well since I know I'm not getting any younger."

Please don't let it be him, she thought, please don't let it be him! Turning around, she saw him step into the spotlight, it was him. None other than Henry J. Waternoose stood there, her old boss or as he put it, her lover.

"What are you doing here?" she asked.

"What's wrong, my dear Candi, you're not too happy to see me again? Seems that you dumped that wretch of a human boyfriend but then again, you're not exactly the one to be in a serious relationship, are you?"

"Why are you here?" she demanded.

"I was able to get myself out of jail early on good behavior, I thought that maybe I could pay some old friends a visit. So…maybe you can do me a special favor, my dear?"

Candi glared at him, "No!"

"What?"

"You heard me, I said no! When I was younger, you could easily control me but then again, you were much older so I didn't question doing as you said. But I'm an adult now, I'm not that same little girl that you used years ago, I don't have to listen to you and sure as hell, I don't have to help you! No means no!"

Waternoose sighed, "Have you told anyone about that night we had together?" He glanced at her face, seeing how it was slowly becoming pale, "I guess not", he remarked.

She remained silent still as he continued, "Tell me, how would it feel if I told others about that night, maybe even Randall…word has it that you seem to hold a special place in your heart for him."

"You wouldn't tell anyone, not after what you did!"

"Well, there are always two sides to a story, my side is that we had made beautiful love, yours is that you became tired and woke up after I had my way….but here's the next question that I have for you, considering how you've been living, who are they more likely to believe? Who is he more willing to believe? We can test the theory if you like?"

Candi could feel a lump in her throat, realizing just how he was right about this. Then she felt the old, wrinkled hands of his upon her shoulders, she was starting to feel sick.

"As I said, I need your help so I believe that it's best you come with me…revenge is a grand dish to serve and I want my lady present in order to enjoy it with me." he whispered in her ear. A tear started to flow down her cheek, this dirty old man hadn't changed despite her being banished and away from him for so long.

"Mr Sullivan, while I have been very patient, I'm afraid that it's running thin. You will need to capture Scourge tonight so that way we can focus our priorities upon Waternoose." Roz lectured.

"Roz, it's not like we haven't been trying. Scourge is determined to stay two steps ahead and away from us as best as he can!"

"Then we will assist you with his capture tonight."

"I don't think sending too many monsters into the human world would be the greatest idea, we have a hard time sneaking around as it is with just us three!"

"Is there somewhere that we can devise an attack then!" she demanded.

Sulley scratched his head, thinking hard, "Well, I'm not sure."

"Where does he stay?"

"He stays at the old West Port Zoo but that place is a good size, also he has a pack of dogs there with him, I don't feel comfortable capturing him there with all of the agents!"

"A plan needs to be devised, Mr. Sullivan!" Roz reminded him.

"Okay…no matter what it takes, we will capture him and I personally will bring him back through the door, alright?"

"Fine then, Mr. Sullivan. I am holding you to that but please keep in mind, if you don't pull this off then I will send the agents, regardless of where they have to go in order to capture him. Do you understand?" He sighed but nodded regardless, "Yes, I understand."

When the time came for Randall to meet up with them, Sulley breaking the news wasn't easy especially with Randall's reaction. "What? She wants him captured tonight? Does she have any idea what kind of junk we're going through just to chase his sorry tail down!"

"He makes a good point!" Mike added.

"Unfortunately she doesn't care, Roz said to capture him tonight or she'll send the agents. Since Waternoose escaped jail, it's been keeping them busy and I'm sure that they want one less thing to worry about."

"That doesn't change the fact that we still are having a lot of trouble when it comes to getting him!" Randall nearly yelled.

Fungus couldn't help but notice that Weasel had just snuck around the corner, the small monster nearly out of breath when he got up to them. "Help! Emergency! Please!"

Randall just stared at him for a few minutes before he dared to ask, "Okay…what's wrong?"

"Candi! In trouble! Scourge nabbed her! Must come get her now!"

"Wait, he nabbed her? When?"

"Just now! She looked like she was in bad shape and I saw him carrying her off, heading back to his place!"

Now this made things even more difficult, Randall didn't honestly think that Scourge would be desperate enough to go for a hostage again! He looked at the guys, no further words had to be said for them to get the message. As the group of monsters took off, Weasel quickly followed along with them.

"We can handle this, you don't have to come." Randall told him.

"Hey, I care a lot about Candi, sure she doesn't like me but I'm willing to help her out if I need to."

"Alright, just don't get in the way."

Arriving at the zoo, they were hesitant due to the dogs or what was left of them but something was odd.

"I don't see the dogs." Fungus nervously responded.

"Well…let's consider this a lucky thing right now." Randall explained. Then they noticed a large shadow rushing down towards one of the exhibits, immediately the guys went after it. They followed the strange figure until they were inside of an old glass covered room, probably used to be a reptile exhibit. Standing there in the middle of the room was none other than Scourge although his expression was very different than what was expected.

"Okay, answer me one question, where is Candi?"

"Wow, guess you are pretty stupid, aren't you reptile!"

Randall heard Scourge's voice but that was impossible, he was in front of them and didn't say a word. Than the entrance to the exhibit slammed shut, with Scourge and Waternoose on the other side of the glass!

"Wait, if Scourge is there than who is this?" Mike asked.

The Scourge in front of them slowly changed until it was no one else but Candi standing there. She couldn't look at them but before Randall could question her, Waternoose felt it was his moment. "Hello boys, how have you been?"

"Waternoose, what are you up to?" Sulley demanded.

"Oh just simple revenge, nothing more."

"Wow, real original Waternoose, lock us up inside of a glass…room." Mike joked.

"Maybe you should take a good look around your little cage."

Randall peered up to see that security camaras were on certain corners with a blinking red light…which meant that the camara was on!

"What are you trying to do!" Randall yelled from inside.

"Weasel hooked us up so smile! You're going to be the special report for the news tomorrow!"

"Humans can get pretty skeptical, Scourge!"

Scourge smiled, "I know which is why when we send the lovely tape, we'll put the address so that way reporters can confirm that what they saw was real!"

Randall ran up to the glass and slammed his fists on it, "Then what will you do, this is your place, remember?"

"I'm thinking of leaving West Port and finding myself a new little town, start over fresh, give them a reason to fear for their children!"

"Damn it, you won't get away with this!"

"Take a good look, lizard boy! I already am!"

The threesome decided to leave them there, "Don't worry boys, we'll come back for our special footage in an hour", Waternoose mocked.

Randall was so pissed off that he tried to punch the glass in but obviously he wasn't that strong. Sulley also decided to take a shot but when he slammed his fist against it, to his surprise the glass didn't even crack! He constantly tried over and over but it was doing no good, "What type of glass is this?"

"Clearly it's designed to hold anything large in here so just punching is not going to work!" Then Randall turned his attention to Candi, she was still standing there with her head hanging low, "Why did you help them", he asked.

She didn't answer him so he got over to her and grabbed her, pulling her face close to his, "Why did you help them!"

"I'm sorry…I just had to…he would have told everything!"

"Told what?"

"I don't want to talk about it!" she yelled.

"What is so important to where you would risk everything, your own life, to keep it a damn secret?"

"I can't tell you!"

"Damn it, Candi, what?" The two continued to argue until finally she couldn't take it anymore.

"HE RAPED ME!" she screamed.

Randall's grip immediately loosened as she backed herself into the wall and slumped down to the floor, now in tears, her body shaking.

"Scourge…he raped…you?"

"No", she screamed again, "Waternoose did!"

Complete shock took over the atmosphere, nearly everyone was speechless, Randall tried to touch her but she pushed away his hand.

"When did…when did this happen?"

"It happened…back when I worked at MI…I was fifth teen, I was hired under the impression that I was actually eighteen…I was a scarer but I wasn't the best one…in fact, I was the worst! I had heard from others that cuts were being made and since my numbers were so horrible, I was afraid that I was going to get fired! I was living on my own, barely able to pay for my apartment and I needed that job or I would be kicked out on the streets! I went to Waternoose for help, I was hoping that maybe he could help train me further but he had different ideas…he told me that if I did him a small favor that he could boost my numbers…he told me of what he wanted but I…I didn't want to but I felt that I had no choice! He would call me over for a blowjob here or there between shifts and like he promised, he brought my numbers up! Then he started acting srange, he started buying me stuff, telling me that he loved me and would make me his wife…and rumors were spreading that I was sleeping with him, that was the reason why I was mysteriously doing better! I wanted out so I told him that I wanted nothing more to do with this…he told me that maybe it was best discussed over dinner! I knew that I shouldn't have gone to his house but I was too stupid to even listen to myself! I went over there, we ate, he got me a drink and while we were talking, I started to get tired…he helped me up to a guest room to take a nap and I fell asleep! When I woke up the next morning, I was sore and in pain, he was in a robe and started talking to me about how good I was! Then it became clear…what he had done…he drugged my drink, he took me upstairs and he…he raped me! I was so stupid, it was all my fault, I should never have gone but I was too stupid…all my fault!"

Candi broke out in a rage of tears again, now he knew, how disgusted he would be with her now! It was over, she had no chances and now, she was going to be trapped here and captured by humans come morning. Then she felt Randall embrace her, wrapping his arms around her, holding her so tightly. She was so shocked at his embrace, why would he even bother, didn't he hear a thing she said?

"It's not your fault! Understand and listen to what I'm saying now, what he did to you! He had no right to do that, you were fifth teen, you were a child! He was an adult and he knew better than that, he knows for a damn fact that what he had done to you, he had no right to take advantage of you!"

Candi didn't know what to say, all she could do was hold onto him and cry for a bit, feeling relief that he wasn't angry at her despite that she was angry at herself. When she started to calm down, he slowly unwrapped his arms as he then looked up, "So…I wonder if there is a way to get out of here."

After wiping her eyes, she noticed that there were ac ducts further up the wall, "What about there?"

Randall looked to where she pointed, "Perfect…but I guess that I'll have to go alone then…" Thinking it over, it was his only option, "Alright, I'll go after them and when I'm done, I'll come back for you guys, okay?" Randall ran over to the wall and started to climb, once he was next to the metal like panal, he used his lower set of arms to pull it off then he squeezed himself through.

Scourge was pretty satisfied but personally felt that an hour was too long, "Hey Weasel, go grab the tape, will ya!" The small monster sighed but before he left for the exhibit, he then turned around, "No!"

"What did you say?"

"I said no!"

Scourge got up as he stood in front of Weasel, towering over him, "I think that you're clearly giving me the wrong answer, might want to run that by me again?"

"I've helped you long enough, I helped you keep your stupid stunt a secret back at MI, I kept my mouth shut despite the abuse you put me through but you know what, I've stood up for myself before and I'll do it again!"

"When the hell have you ever stood up for yourself, you little chicken shit!"

"Who do you think was the one who reported you!"

Scourge's eyes got large and instantly turning into a glare, fury blazing within them. Waternoose having a feeling of what was to happen, decided to leave, "I'll go ahead and get the tape instead." Scourge seemed to not even notice as his anger stayed focused on the small monster.

"Yeah, that's right! You're old scaring assistant was the one who squeeled on you! I got my name for a reason, in case that wasn't clear to you!"

Scourge instantly grabbed the small monster by his neck, only growling now as he held a claw to his small body.

"You're the asshole who ratted me out in the first fucking place! It was you, you fucking bastard!"

Weasel would have answered him but could barely breathe due to Scourge's grip on him. Scourge extended his claws and holding them high, he roared as they came thrashing at the small monster's body! Feeling the puncture into his leg, Weasel could only scream out in agony as he was held defenseless.


	23. Chapter 23

And now...we reach our final chapter...for those who have continued to read this all the way from the beginning, I thank you for sticking with me all this way, I honestly was never sure if I would finish this fiction but I'm glad to see that I did. You guys really helped me keep up my motivation to continue on it. We are also seeing a slight bit of cliffhanger near the end, I do have a sequel planned but after working very hard on this, I'm definitely going to take a breather before starting the next fiction. So...MI characters belong to Disney/Pixar, my characters are mine, and lyrics property of Evanescence.

Chapter Twenty Three

_My wounds cry for the grave! My soul cries for deliverance! Will I be denied? Christ! Tourniquet! My suicide!_

_-Evanescence_

Waternoose seemed to be lost, unlike Scourge who knew his way through this place easily, the older monster had no clue! He then wandered into an open space within the zoo, seeing the dark night sky above him. Then he noticed that there was a strange horse statue or he thought it was some type of horse but then it moved, stepping down from it's base. He couldn't believe who it was, "Emmanuel?"

"How dare you call me by my first name, Henry! After what you had done to me so long ago, you do not have the right!"

"And you do", he asked him, "It's been a long time if I recall."

Stallion glared at him, "Yes, it's been nearly fifty years since we last seen each other…for humans that is clearly a short lifetime but for us, almost like a few days passing."

"How have you been all this time?"

Stallion had now lost interest in talking and that became so clear, Waternoose smiled, "Let me guess, you're here to stop me?"

"Yes…very much so." Stallion prepared himself in a fighting stance as Waternoose started to crack his knuckles, doing the same.

Lillian, Brendan, and Morgana were right outside the fence to the old West Port Zoo. When Brendan came looking for Candi, he couldn't find her anywhere so he went to Randall's place but couldn't find him either. When he tried to search for Weasel, his last resort was turning to the other banished monsters. With a little cooperation, he had found one that had spotted Candi and another monster heading to the zoo but Brendan wasn't going alone. He went over to Lillian's and told her of what he heard, they called up Morgana who was able to sneak out and meet them there. When they climbed down the hill and into the zoo's entrance gates, they could see how massive the park was.

"Shit, where are we supposed to start in this place?" Brendan questioned.

"Guess we start down the middle path and go from there." Morgana suggested.

The three started walking as they peered inside old exhibits and cages but didn't see anything. Then they walked by the reptile exhibit but froze, was Candi in there with those three other monsters? The kids ran back and saw that they were in there but Randall was nowhere to be seen. The kids noticed that a key was inside the door's lock and opened it, running in as quickly as they could. Candi was so surprised to see them and rushed over to give Brendan a huge hug!

"How did you guys know we were here?" Sulley asked.

"Word on the street", Lillian explained, "Where's Randall?"

"He used that to get out of here since we were kind of stuck." Mike explained, pointing at the opening in the wall.

"You guys, we need to do something about the camaras." Fungus shouted.

The kids looked up to see that they were recording, "Hey Morgana, think you can shut them off", Lillian asked.

"Yeah, no problem."

"Good, you guys go do that, I'm going to see if I can find Randall and make sure he's okay." Lillian told them. She took off down the pathway in hopes that she would find where Randall could have exited to get out of the exhibit.

Randall had made it out but finding Scourge wasn't so simple, the size of the park allowed the wolf plenty of spaces to hide. Then he saw near a set of bushes was Weasel, the small monster was hurt. He was practically dragging his leg but then he saw Randall approach him, "He went that way!"

"Weasel, you're hurt, I have got to-."

"No", Weasel shouted, "I'll be fine, Scourge is up ahead but he's not staying in one spot for too long, you need to get to him and stop him before he ditches this place!"

"Alright but when I'm done, I will come back for you." Weasel watched as Randall ran towards the direction that he had come from.

He kept going, kept telling himself that as long as he kept up his speed, he could catch up to the mangy wolf. He soon found his way outside of an old snack bar, garbage and trash around his feet. Randall had to stop, take a quick breath, he had to just take a moment before continuing on…but then he heard a low growl. It was familiar but it wasn't from Scourge, he knew where it was coming from. The monster looked behind himself to see that Butch was standing on a brick wall that wrapped around one of the old exhibits. The Doberman knew where he was going, the dog understood well what the monster was going to do. Butch's growls got louder as he bared his fangs, then suddenly he jumped off the brick and ran full speed at the monster.

Randall tried to brace himself but he underestimated the dog's strength as Butch leaped onto him and clamped down on his arm. The dog now tried to pull and tear at him, Randall tried pushing the dog against another wall but he refused to let go. Then he tried again but this time rammed him into another structure, Butch released with a quick yelp. Then after he started to pant, he tried again but Randall wasn't strong enough to brace this attack. The dog had pulled him down to the ground, he struggled to keep the dog from biting and ripping apart his face. This was all too familiar, this was what had happened when Butch had first received the scar upon his eye. Randall looked around, trying to find anything to use as a weapon, not caring what but then he saw it, it was an old rusty knife. Randall was struggling to grab the blade with one hand while he kept his other three at keeping the dog at bay. With whatever energy he had, he kicked off the damn dog, in that instant he had the blade in his hand. Butch immediately recovered and made his leap, Randall pulled up the knife and held it in his grip. Time seemed to slow down, stand still even but then Butch made contact.

Randall slowly opened his eyes and saw that the dog had seemed frozen, the dog's breathing slowed as he looked down at the monster. Butch realized what had happened…it was over…he tried to serve and protect his master and he failed…a crime that couldn't be forgiven. Randall looked into the dog's eyes, they suddenly closed as the dog's body slowly became limp. For a moment, all he could hear was his own breathing and he felt something wet on his hands. Frightened, he pushed the dog off of him, Butch's body hit the ground and slightly rolled over to reveal what had happened. The knife was lodged in his chest, blood was flowing from the wound, it was on Randall's hands. The monster instantly shot to his feet, hysterical as he approached the dog, he was tempted to place a hand upon the body but decided against it. "I'm sorry…" he whispered. The monster felt sick, he couldn't stay here, not any longer…not after this. He picked up Scourge's scent as he ran away from that scene…the scene of loyalty that had died within minutes.

Morgana had shut off the camaras from inside the reptile exhibit, next she was working on deleting the tape and it's footage. She looked at the camaras, even though they weren't recording physically, they were still showing what was happening in the zoo. She noticed something strange upon another camara, "Hey…what's going on?"

Sulley looked at the footage that she was referring to, he saw Waternoose on the ground as Stallion stood towering over him.

"There's Waternoose! Can you find out where that's recording from?"

Morgana wiped clean the label below the monitor, "It says left of visitor center. That's near the main buidling when you enter!"

The monsters immediately ran from the room, since Waternoose was down for the moment, they had to take this opportunity to catch him while they could. Lillian then looked at another monitor, she saw Weasel limping right past the reptile exhibit, "Shoot, the little guy is torn up!"

"I'll go get him, Candi come on!" Brendan ordered.

That just left Morgana all by herself but then she saw on another monitor the image of a dog on the ground and a shadow that could be seen coming in that direction. Scourge had decided to take an alternate route to backtrack to the main security room. Waternoose was taking too long to get the tape, for all he knew, the old man had gotten his ass lost! Then he smelled the blood, he could smell the death as he saw a body upon the ground…it was the body of Butch.

"Butch?" he questioned.

He slowly walked towards the body, and then he could see it, the puddle of blood, the knife in his heart. The monster placed a claw upon the dog's side, he was cold and wasn't breathing. He couldn't believe it, his most loyal dog, the lead of his pack…was dead. The feeling of knowing that the dog laid there dead was too much…Scourge normally didn't give a damn about his pack but Butch was different. Butch had shown from the beginning that he had the drive and the will to serve him, he was loyal. Then he picked up a scent…it was Randall's…he knew who killed his dog. He started to become enraged, he howled within the darkness of the night. Then a new scent was picked up, he looked to the left to see Lillian running up but once she saw him, she froze.

"Your damn reptile…he killed my dog…"

Lillian didn't know what to say, she started to back away, almost too afraid to even attempt to run.

"He killed my dog!" Scourge said, louder this time.

"I…I'm sorry, I'm sure he didn't mean it!" she told him.

Scourge's body seemed different, he wasn't the same, something in him had snapped and now, he was nothing like he was before. The wolf got on all fours as he made a bolt to Lillian, she turned to run but she felt his body on hers, he had her!

Waternoose was exhausted, the fight was too much even for his old body. As Sulley practically dragged him towards the visitor center, a huge van came speeding and grinded to a halt. It opened to reveal Roz and a few agents inside, Sulley couldn't believe it, "I told you that we were going to get Scourge and you still come here anyway?"

"I gave you time, Mr. Sullivan, you were taking a little too long for my tastes."

"Where'd you get the van?" Mike asked her.

"Let's just say that we borrowed it, we'll be using it to take us back to where we entered."

"And what closest was that?" he questioned her.

"That information is classified, Mr. Wasoski."

Two agents placed cuffs on Waternoose's hands, pulling him over to the van. Then Brendan and Candi showed up, carrying Weasel as the little monster looked weaker.

"What's wrong with him?" Roz asked the boy.

Brendan didn't hestitate, "He's hurt, that wolf tore him up, if there's anyway to help him then please do."

"Alright", Roz turned to another agent, "Work on him, do what you can to patch him up, we'll take him back home to get further medical attention."

The agent took the monster from Brendan's arms, quickly taking him to the van and proceding with first aid. Candi looked over to Waternoose, he glared at her coldly, almost as if he felt that she had intentionally tried to hurt him. She only smiled back, he couldn't stand to see her and looked away.

Morgana came running back, "You guys, Lillian's…whoa, who are they?"

"Back up", Sulley told her, "What about Lillian?"

"Wolf boy has her! He's running fast towards the lion exhibit!"

"How far is that from here?" Roz asked her.

"Uh, a ways that a way!"

"Agents, get going, this is our chance to capture him before he tries anything rash." The other agents heeded her words as they ran down the pathway to the exhibit.

Randall had lost Scourge's scent for a bit but then he picked it up again, then he saw lights turn on within one of the exhibits. He had a hunch that was where Scourge could be, going on what he could, he ran towards the lights. The lion exhibit was massive, enormous lights near the top of the fake cliff and rock formations. Lillian was hanging from a chain from one of the large lights, she was trying to pull herself down but was unsuccessful.

"Get me down from here!" she screamed.

Scourge ignored her, she started to yell louder, "Damn it, let me down now you mangy mutt!"

"We're waiting for your damn pet to show up so shut your trap or I'll shut it for you!"

"This is low, this is how much of a coward that you are! You have to resort to kidnapping? That is cowardly!"

Scourge glared at her, "I said shut up!"

"No! I'm not going to! Let me down now!"

Scourge got close to her, "I said to shut up already."

Lillian spit at his face, he growled at her and pulled back a claw, she screamed because she knew what was going to happen next.

"SCOURGE!"

He froze to see Randall at the guardrail, looking down upon the scene.

"Well…about time you showed up."

"Scourge…this fight has nothing to do with her, let Lillian go!"

"Oh it has plenty to do with her, you damn bastard…because now we'll be even."

"What are you talking about?"

"I believe humans call it an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…you killed my dog."

Randall became nervous but slowly crawled down into the exhibit, "Scourge, please…I never meant to kill Butch, I never wanted to harm him, I did what I could to defend myself."

"You damn son of a bitch, you could have walked away!"

"He was attacking me, I didn't have much of a choice!" Randall protested.

"You had a choice and you fucking made it!" Scourge yelled.

"Killing her won't bring him back." Randall begged.

"That sympathy shit don't work on me! You want her back…then you fight me!"

The two monsters circled around until Scourge made the first move. He pounced on Randall, the two monsters went flying to the ground, it soon became chaos. The fight turned into a fury of kicks, clawings, and bites. Scourge rammed the reptilious monster into the wall, Randall bit down onto his shoulder. All Lillian could do was watch as the fight continued to unfold but then she noticed that strange suited people were near the guard rail.

"Agents, hold steady." ordered one agent.

A taller monster came up to the guard rail, he held some kind of tranquilizer gun, he carefully took aim.

"Who am I aiming for?" he asked.

"The furred monster, the other isn't important." his fellow agent told him.

"Got it."

Randall then had Scourge down upon the ground but the wolf pummeled him with a claw, Randall went down to the ground, Scourge pounced on him.

"You had this coming, reptile!"

Scourge lifted up a claw but then something hit him, he looked to see a dart in his shoulder, he got up to see the agents. Then another shot hit the mark, Scourge could already feel the effects, his vision was going on him, he couldn't see anymore. Falling to his knees, he then heard the commotion of the agents, he could feel them grabbing him and placing him in cuffs. Randall got over to Lillian, untying her and she instantly hugged him, glad to see that he was more or less okay. An agent pulled out a radio, "Number One, we got him."

Back within the factory, Roz watched as the agents were taking Waternoose back to jail and Scourge to be processed at the station. Then she turned her attention towards the monsters, Weasel was tired but after a quick trip to the hospital, he seemed to be okay. Randall was exhausted, a little beat up, but still alive and well. Candi seemed to be different herself though she had gained confidence and Stallion stood there, not much of an expression as Celine rubbed his mane. Lillian and the others were there too, Roz didn't seem bothered by the humans standing there.

"Well Mr. Boggs, I have to thank you…Mr. Sullivan never mentioned who was helping him but despite what happened to you, I'm shocked to see that even you could push aside the past to help us…once again, I thank you."

"No problem…so how long have you been working for the CDA?" he asked her.

"Let's just say that I've been working for them long enough."

He decided to take that as an answer, she wasn't talking about the subject any further.

"Also, I thank you for your information Candi, I promise you that upon his next court date, I will be certain to put a good word in for you."

She nodded, that was some kind of relief to her then Roz smiled, "So…it seems that you banished monsters did quite well, I apologize for why some of you were banished, the CDA was very different before I took over as lead agent…and it seems that maybe, a reward is in order for your efforts."

A look of confusion could be seen as Roz continued, "I am willing to start you all off with a clean slate and if you choose, you can come back to the city of Monstropolis."

The group couldn't believe it, after all of these years of living amongst humans, they could finally come back home but then…they looked over towards the humans. The ones that they knew, the ones that had been a part of their lives for some time…if they returned home than that was it, they could no longer see them again. Randall thought it over, he always wanted to believe that sometimes stuff happens for a reason and now was one of those reasons. He looked over at Candi, Weasel and eventually Stallion, they felt the same as him.

"Thank you Roz but…I'm afraid that we can't accept your offer."

She gave him a glance as he walked over to Lillian, "I know that I can't be her friend forever but for as long as she needs me, I'm going to be there for Lillian."

Stallion approached Celine who embraced him, Candi walked over to Brendan who didn't mind her hugging him very tight. Weasel and Morgana exchanged smiles, as they started to giggle to themselves.

Understanding, she accepted, "Very well…if you do ever change your mind, the option is always open."

Lillian couldn't believe what had happened, "Why? You can go home, you don't have to stay with me."

"ButI want to." He placed his forehead against hers as the two smiled, she gently hugged his face.

The last week of school had finally passed, finals were over and the kids were free but things were a little unsettling. Brendan's parents had decided to purchase a vacation home up north and discovered a wonderful private school. He would be on his way to his new home by early night but he wasn't going alone…Candi was going with him. The two decided to walk home this time, she had to say goodbye to someone before she left. When they arrived at the old house, Brendan glanced over to her, "Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah…I'm sure."

"Okay then."

They walked up the sidewalk, it seemed like going inside was taking hours when in reality it was only minutes. Inside, they could hear talking, they entered the music room to see that Lillian and Morgana was there. Weasel was also there, he had been staying with Randall until he was completely healed. When they saw the two, Randall had a feeling that something was up.

"Brendan's moving." Candi said.

"Really?" Lillian asked.

"Yeah", he told her, "Mom and Dad saw some private school and I'm transferring."

"Oh…well, I'm sure you'll be okay Candi." Randall told her.

"Actually, I'm going with him." she explained.

He wasn't sure if he heard right, "What? Why? You don't have to go, he's the one that's moving!"

"I came over here to say goodbye, this will be the last that I see you guys…"

Brendan watched as she hugged both Lillian and Morgana, she patted Weasel on the head but when she faced Randall…she wasn't sure of what to do. Turning away from them, Brendan made a choice, "You can stay here Candi, if you want to."

She turned to him, "But you said-."

"I know what I said but…I don't own you, you can make any decision that you want so do what you want."

She smiled at him, that was a pretty big thing for him to do, "I'm going with you."

Brendan looked at her, "I told you that you don't have to."

"I know but I want to…besides, you're my friend, my best friend…friends stick together, right?"

The boy looked at her, she was willing to go with him anywhere, even to hell and back if he chose…she was truly his friend.

"Candi…I have something to say." Randall began.

"Yes?"

"I just wanted to say that I…I…", he sighed, "I wanted to say that you be careful out there, okay?"

Her spirits dropped a little, "Sure thing, I'll do that." As the two left, Randall couldn't help but mentally kick himself, he had his chance and he screwed it up but not much could be done about that now, the moment was over.

Night fell, Randall stood upon one of the highest buildings within the city, watching the roads down below. "She's leaving, I see." He turned to see Stallion walk up to him, peering over the city.

"How did you know?" Randall asked him.

"Lillian informed me."

Then Randall saw it, the large moving truck with the limo following right behind it, "I was so stupid earlier."

"Why is that?" Stallion asked.

"I had my chance…you know, I always thought that maybe I found Candi to be annoying and don't get me wrong, she is but…after what happened, the outbreak as humans call it, she left me alone. I guess you could say that I got so used to her annoying me that once I got a true moment of peace, I didn't want it. It kind of sucks when you go falling for the town's most popular girl, isn't it?"

Stallion nodded, "If there is something that time has taught me…where there is a will, there is a way…if it was meant to be than fate shall reward you one day…if not then there will be another."

"What if there never is?"

"Then if that's what fate has weilded then you must be strong enough to accept it."

Randall understood although it sounded bittersweet to him, "So…now since Scourge and Waternoose are back in jail, what are you going to do?"

"The same as I always have, move onward to the next tyrant and stop him as I can."

"What if another like Scourge shows up?"

"Then that's where you come in." Stallion told him.

Randall laughed, "So it's my job now?"

"Randall…Scourge ran this city no different than his own pack of dogs, he made himself alpha male and through respect or fear, he kept that title…these monsters haven't known anything different…as the victorious one, you now hold that place."

"What if they don't listen to me?"

"Show them who you truly are and in time, they will."

Stallion turned away from the monster, but then Randall called out, "Hey Stallion?" Stallion turned to look at him, "For what it's worth, I'm glad that you helped me out", Randall told him.

"No, thank you, I had the honor to meet a strong and brave monster and now, this city is in your hands, it's under your protection. Doing what you can to uphold that is all you need to do to thank me." Stallion spread his wings and took flight as Randall looked back towards the road, West Port was his now and he would do what he could to keep it safe.

"Sit down here!" A police officer commanded. The wolf did just that, he had been going through questioning, processing and all that mess for the past week. His trial was coming up to decide how long his jail sentence would be. His thoughts always returned to Butch, he had never truly noticed how undying the dog's loyalty was until after he was gone. Then he looked to see that three teenage monsters were walked into the station, told to sit down near Scourge. They were two males and a female, the female looked almost like a human but she had wings, horns, and a devil tail. One of the males was having to sit on the floor, he looked like a huge brown dog. Then the one that appeared to be their leader took his seat, he looked like the same type of monster as Randall but he was black with red markings. The kid was decked out in all kind of body jewelry and décor, his red eyes glanced over at Scourge.

He gave a slight nod, "What's up?"

Scourge gave a wicked smile, he liked this kid, he had potential, "Name's Scourge, you?"

"Leo…what's it to you?"

"Tell me Leo, if there was one thing that you want…what would that be?" The kid thought it over, "Simple, respect…respect once I rule this damn town."

"Really? I think I could help you with that." Scourge told him.

Leo's fronds perked up, "I'm listening…"

Scourge held his dark grin, looks like he had himself a new dog…


End file.
